


I'd Trade My Life for Yours

by grayimperia



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2018-10-13 16:18:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 38
Words: 369,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10517349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayimperia/pseuds/grayimperia
Summary: [Major spoilers for all of V3]Her classmates have just chosen Saihara as the killer by a margin of one. He finally reaches out to her, and she looks back at him. And Monokuma says something that absolutely shocks both of them to the core.“Welp! Looks like you guys got it right!”Kaede’s world stops.-Three different sacrifices are made, and three different survivors stumble out of the rubble.





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Major chapter one spoilers. 
> 
> Note: the majority of this fic was written before the English release and thus some things are based on various fan translation and may differ from the localizations (i.e. Gonta's speeh patterns, Angie's God, etc). Thank you for your understanding and please enjoy!

Saihara starts lying. Well, first he contradicts her lie. 

“Please, Akamatsu-san,” he says. “You don’t have to lie for me anymore. You weren’t holding the receiver. I was.”

The first words since his self-imposed silence are to doom himself and all of their classmates along with him. Kaede opens her mouth, ready to shout out whatever excuse for why they shouldn’t believe him comes to her first.

Shinguji beats her to it. “Kukuku, is that confession?”

Saihara nods curtly. “It is… I don’t want to drag this out any longer, I…” he peers at Kaede from under the brim of his hat. He lowers it back over his eyes. “I killed Amami-kun… I’m sorry everyon—”

Kaede finds her voice. “You’re lying! Saihara-kun’s lying!”

He won’t look at her. He’s hiding. Kaede feels desperation beginning to bubble up inside of her. 

Maki raises an eyebrow. “About holding the receiver?”

“Well, no, not about that, but—”

“So you admit to lying earlier,” Ouma tilts his head. “You said he was _not_ holding it but now you’re saying Saihara-chan’s telling the truth about him _not not_ holding it.”

“Um, Tenko is confused,” the girl interjected. “Who was holding it?”

Saihara doesn’t look up, but his voice rings clear across the growing noise. “I was. A-and I faked it going off in front of Akamatsu-san.” He glances to the side—not daring to meet the truth in Kaede’s eyes— and offers everyone a small, pained smile. “You guys figured me out exactly…”

He’s killing himself. 

“No, that’s wrong!” Kaede shouts. “All of this is wrong!”

Tojo is not impolite when she calmly asks, “Akamatsu-san, you seem very confident in that, but how do you know? Please understand that we need evidence to believe you, especially since everything points towards—”

“He didn’t do it!” she shouts again. “And… and I know Saihara-kun didn’t do it because… because,” Kaede prepares to sign her own death warrant. “Because I did it.”

Saihara flinches at her words, and the others’ talking turns into a white noise around them—

Angie gasps. “Ah! A second confession!” 

Momota shouts, “I told you Saihara didn’t do it!” 

“So you believe Akamatsu is the culprit then?” Maki asks.

“Wha—no! Of course not!” 

Iruma launches into cackling. “Wow you really are as dumb as—”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Iruma launches into sniveling. 

“Anyway, to talk about something important,” Hoshi sighs. “There can only be one killer, so one of them is lying.”

“Oh, I see, I see,” chirps Angie. “But why would one of them lie? Did God tell them to?” 

“One of the confessions is an illusion,” Yumeno offers. “If I had enough MP I could figure out which one, but…” she shrugs noncommittally.

Shinguji waves a finger. “The two of them were always close. Clearly this is a matter of one human choosing to throw away their very life for another. Truly something fascinating to behold.”

“Ah, now Angie understands!” She claps. “Dying for your love! How romantic!”

“But we’ll all die, too,” Shirogane mumbles.

—The words strike a chord in Kaede. This is not simply her life weighed against Saihara’s. But even if it were… the realization hits her like an arrow straight through the heart. 

She wants to protect everyone. She wants to protect _him_ , even if it means saving him from himself.

“Which is why,” Kaede says, taking back the conversation with a new firmness in her voice. “I confessed. Because I wanted to save everyone.” She looks across the room towards Saihara. She’s found her reason to die. 

He’s shaking his head. He’s found his reason, too. 

“Akamatsu-san, please stop. They already know the truth. I manipulated you and used you as my alibi, and I’m sorry, but,” he squeezes his eyes closed. “I won’t let you take the fall for me anymore.” Then, his eyes finally meet hers. “I’m not worth it.” 

Kaede feels her fists clench.

“So we vote for Saihara, right?” drawls Yumeno. 

“No!” responds Kaede. Logic is leaving her. “He didn’t do it—he’s lying to save me!”

“So… we vote for Akamatsu-san?” tries Gonta. 

“There’s no evidence other than her own word that she did it,” says Saihara. “And,” he takes a breath, “and she already lied once earlier… so how much can we trust her?”

The pit that took root in her stomach ever since Saihara called out her lie doubles in size. She grips the podium in front of her tightly. The others are getting restless. The noise is rising, and Saihara’s standing in front of her, serenely condemning himself to death for a crime she committed. 

The world is spinning. 

“Why?” Kaede’s voice is small, and she speaks only to him over the growing rumble. “Why are you doing this?” She wants to—needs to—hear the words straight from him. 

Everyone’s shouting now, and it’s only thanks to years of training her ears that she picks up his voice among the chaos. Saihara says, “Because I’m a coward.” He pulls down his hat, but she can see the tears starting to form. “Because I can’t face this truth. Because I don’t want you to die.”

Kaede’s mouth pulls into a tight line, and she starts shaking her head. She screams for everyone to calm the hell down and goes over exactly how she killed Amami. How she arranged the books, how she set-up the camera’s flash, how she dropped the shot-put through the vent, how she did it all right in front of Saihara’s eyes. But…

“Interesting, interesting,” Ouma smiles. “We have two ways someone could have killed Amami-chan.”

“But,” Tenko’s sweating, “but how do we know which one is right?”

Hoshi pulls his hat down. “I doubt whichever of them is lying is going to admit it now…”

“So do we just,” Shirogane wrings her hands. “Do we just have to pick one and hope?”

“But if we’re wrong,” says Maki. “We all die.”

“G-Gonta doesn’t like that idea!” 

“T-Tenko doesn’t either!” 

Ouma hums. “Looks like we got a fifty-fifty shot.” 

“And that’s the best you’re going to get!” chimes in Monokuma. “Because it’s time for the vote!”

This is bad, Kaede’s numb mind supplies. This is really, really bad. She quickly picks herself when her screen lights up. She leans to one side. Yumeno votes for Saihara. She leans to the other. Gonta’s voted for her. She knows Saihara’s voting for himself. Kaede looks around at all of her classmates and has to wonder if it’s really going to come down to one vote. 

It does. 

And her classmates have just chosen Saihara as the killer by a margin of one. 

They gather together to the side of their podiums, looking at the overhead screen light up with Saihara’s face. 

Kaede pales. “No, no, no, no… this isn’t happening…” she presses her hands to her head. “This isn’t happening.”

Saihara is standing there with his arms crossed, smiling while on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry, Akamatsu-san.”

He finally reaches out to her, and she looks back at him. And Monokuma says something that absolutely shocks both of them to the core. 

“Welp! Looks like you guys got it right!” 

Kaede’s world stops. Monokuma’s still talking, but she screams over him, “WHAT!?”

All the color has drained from Saihara’s face. His eyes are wide and his mouth is open, desperately trying to form words, “b-but, that’s not—I—what?”

Monokuma huffs. “Do I need to repeat myself? I said you got it right. Amami Rantarou—The Ultimate Whatever’s—killer is the Ultimate Detective Saihara Shuuichi.” 

“But it’s not!” Kaede shouts back. “I did it!” 

She hears someone let out a strained sigh behind her. Then Maki says, “Akamatsu, just give it up already. Stop lying.” 

“Yeah!” Iruma yells. “We get that you’re sad you didn’t get to fuck your boyfriend before he fucked-up Rantar—”

Momota comes to her rescue. “Hey, shut the fuck up! If Akamatsu says he didn’t do it, then he didn’t do it!”

“But Monokuma just said he did…” Shirogane says. 

Kaede glances back at her classmates because she can’t bear to look at the way Saihara is shaking. There’s anger and frustration and despair—and in Ouma’s case—absolute confusion painted on their faces in equal measure. And Saihara… Saihara… she failed. _She failed_.

Kaede immediately steps in front of him, shielding him from Monokuma. “We both know he’s innocent.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the bear says. “But I do know it’s time for the punishment.”

She steps backwards, closer to Saihara, pulling him behind her. “No. I won’t let you. This is wrong! This is all wrong!”

“Akamatsu-san,” and the quiet of Saihara’s voice gets her attention. She whips around to face him. “This… this is for the best, right? If only… if only I get executed… this is…” there are tears openly running down his face and it’s obvious he’s completely terrified. He tries to smile at her. “This is better than what I was hoping for. This is the best possible outcome. R-right?”

Kaede surges forward and pulls him into a hug. She has a lot of things she wants to say, but she finds that her voice is too chocked by her own tears to get out anything other than, “I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry. This is all my fault… this…”

He hugs her back. “Akamatsu-san… I-I…” his hands grip her shoulders tighter, “I’m glad I got to meet you, even if…”

Monokuma’s getting impatient, hoping around the two of them in circles. “Alright, alright, we get it. You two love each other sooooo much. But we’ve got a punishment to get to!”

The words click something in Kaede’s head, and her hold on Saihara becomes iron. He stiffens. “Akamatsu-san?”

She glares directly into Monokuma’s robotic red eye, and says through gritted teeth, “I. Will. Not. Let. You.”

The bear puts a paw to his chin. “Oh? Are you defying your headmaster?” 

Her answer is to pull Saihara even closer. 

He gasps. She knows she’s hurting him now, but it’s the only thing she can think to do to stop this. Not a muscle in her body wavers when she says: “If you want to execute him, you’ll have to kill me first.”

Monokuma bears his claws. “That can be arranged.”

Kaede hears movement behind her, and suddenly Momota is standing in front of her, flanked by Tenko and Gonta. “You’re not gonna fucking kill anybody,” he says, slamming his fists together.

Tenko’s already fallen into a battle stance. “Tenko will use her neo-Aikido to protect all her classmates… even the boys.”

Gonta’s attempting a battle stance. “Gonta will fight, too! A gentleman uses his strength to protect his friends!” 

Monokuma pauses. “Hmm, a five-way execution might get a bit hairy, but it sure would be a series first!” 

Ouma takes a step forward. “But you don’t want that,” he says, a hand at his chin. “You don’t want to kill all of us.” A strange smile that stretches too far slides on to his face. “That’s why this is happening.” 

Thoughts of what the hell Ouma’s talking about and something not-quite-right about what Monokuma said begin pushing their way into the back of Kaede’s mind. Of course, most of her thoughts are simply a loop of _protect Saihara, don’t let go of Saihara, protect Saihara…_

Momota opens his mouth, likely to ask the questions currently being shoved out of Kaede’s immediate thoughts, when giant robots burst into the trial room. 

The Exisals are barring down on them, and the Monokubs are chattering about how they’re going to enforce their father’s will. Red lights flash over them, and though none of the three assembled in front of her budge an inch, Kaede can see the sudden stiffness in Gonta’s shoulders, the sweat beading down Tenko’s back, and the vein straining in Momota’s neck as he clenches his jaw. And something about that makes her simultaneously realize two things: none of them will back down and they will all be slaughtered. 

They’ll all die protecting her, just like Saihara… Saihara’s quite desperately struggling in her grasp now. Then he’s shouting, “S-Stop! Everyone stop!” 

He shoves the entirety of his weight against her arms, and Kaede’s grip gives out just enough for him to stumble forward, her hands still catching on to his arms. She breathes out, “Saihara-kun?” 

He doesn’t look back at her. “Everyone, stop,” he says. “It’s okay. No… no one else needs to die.”

Momota pivots on his heel to face him. “You’re just going to give up your life?”

“No! I,” he takes in a deep breath. “I just don’t want anyone to die because of me.” 

Someone—likely Maki—says, “You mean anyone else.”

Saihara grimaces at the comment echoing through the room. “Y-yes. Anyone else,” he turns to Kaede. “Because I did it, okay? That’s… that’s the truth of this case. So, please, Akamatsu-san, please find the mastermind, and… and save everyone, okay? If anyone can do it… it’s you.”

He tries to smile, and says “Promise me, alright?” and Kaede’s heart breaks in two. 

Monokuma leaps up. “Then it’s finally time for the punishment!” 

Before Kaede can say a word, a door she hadn’t seen before flings open, and a chain flies out past all the other students and snaps around Saihara’s neck. 

He’s forcibly wrenched out of her grip, the strength of which sends his hat spinning to the ground as his body is yanked down the strange hallway that seems to have suddenly burst into existence. Kaede’s feet are moving after him as soon as his hand leaves her. She sprints down the hall in a dead run, the footsteps of Momota, Gonta, and Tenko echoing close behind her, followed by everyone else. 

The screens in the courtroom spell out:

  
**GAME OVER**  


  
**SAIHARA SHUUICHI HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY**  


  
**TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT**  


In bright, neon letters. A pixilated image of Monokuma dragging him away happily appears underneath. Kaede’s own sprite appears to chase after them, tiny feet shuffling quickly along the bottom of the screen.

The real Kaede doesn’t spare the mocking image a single glance. The real Kaede keeps her eyes locked on the look of terror on Saihara’s face.

He reaches a hand out to her. Kaede’s lungs are on fire as she forces her legs to move even faster. 

**Detective of Love Whodunit: Shot through the Heart!**

Saihara’s pulled into a strange circular room decorated to be reminiscent of an old manor except with see-through walls and odd statues of Monokuma dressed like cupids placed at the intersections of wall and ceiling. 

The chain releases him, and a final wall shoots up from the ground to seal him inside. Saihara tries runs to the wall Kaede’s racing towards, in one last ditch attempt to reach out to her again. He doesn’t make it far. As soon as he stands, a Monokuma statue pops out of the ground behind him, armed with a revolver. Kaede makes it to the window just in time to see him scream as the bullet passes through his leg. 

Saihara falls to his hands and knees, and more Monokumas pop up from the floor, brandishing a pipe, a knife, a candlestick, and a wrench. They move in circles on a track around him, the ones with blunt weapons liberally smashing their chosen tools against his legs, arms, stomach, only once against his head to blur his vision with blood—anywhere that won’t be fatal. The one with the knife is slower, taking care not to inflict any wounds that could kill. A simple knife through the heart would be too easy. 

Kaede begins pounding her fists against the window, shouting for them to stop, for anyone to save him as the floor inside the room begins darkening with his blood. 

Momota, Gonta, and Tenko throw themselves against the window with her. It stands strong. Saihara’s being slowly beaten to death. 

Suddenly, the four statues stop all at once and sink back into the floor. A red Monokuma statue appears behind him armed with a rope. It lifts the rope, ready to wrap it around his neck when the weapon is yanked out of its hands by the strange robotic Monokub. 

Saihara’s limbs are weak and barely respond as he tries to push himself up on to his knees against the floor slick with his own blood. Behind him, the robotic Monokub has turned on the blue one, wrapping the rope around its neck and yanking on either end until his head pops off. It’s a strange sight, but it means that nothing is currently trying to kill Saihara. 

Part of Kaede thinks that the execution has to be over. That he somehow survived and is going to be released when she spies one of the cupid Monokuma statues beginning to move. 

Kaede screams even louder. 

Saihara looks up through the blood obscuring his vision to see Kaede shouting his name. He’s staring into her eyes when one of the statues let its arrow fly straight into his chest. It stops right at the surface of his skin, and instead of piercing his heart and putting him out of his misery, he instead feels the arrowhead beginning to burn. 

The moment of pure shock as to what is happening to him is quickly replaced by panic as his hands desperately scramble to pull out the arrow that is incinerating him from the inside out. 

Breathing gets harder and harder as his lungs become engulfed in flames, and he is in such excruciating pain that eventually the world blurs around him into darkness. 

Saihara dies bloody, half-beaten to death and gasping for breath. His body collapses to the ground, and Monokuma announces the execution has been a tremendous success. 

The walls that had been keeping everyone out slowly retreat into the ground. The smell of blood and burning skin fills the air around his corpse, but Kaede rushes forward. 

She drops to her knees and just stares at his face, twisted from the agonizing pain that was meant for her.

Her mind goes blank, and she finds herself being restrained by Gonta, kicking and screaming and Monokuma in front of her laughing. 

She is going to kill the mastermind. _She is going to kill the mastermind._

-

No one speaks to her on the elevator ride back to the school. Kaede doesn’t have any speeches about hope or carrying Saihara’s sacrifice with them or how they all just need to believe in each other. 

She can barely even feel her own grief over the raw anger bubbling up inside of her. 

Momota looks like he’s on the verge of speaking, but he remains silent and the few moments of attention that are directed towards Kaede are focused on preventing her from rushing Monokuma and receiving a spear straight through the heart. 

Kaede goes immediately to her room and screams as she thinks about the arrow that went through Saihara’s heart. In the privacy of her soundproof walls, she sinks to the floor with a wordless yell. 

Time passes, and her voice is hoarse and her eyes are red and her fists are bruised from when she slammed them against the window Monokuma gave her to watch Saihara die.

The bear in question pops up in front of her. “My, my, someone seems upset.” She looks up at him from her place on the floor. “And here I thought you’d be happy, given that this trial had—oh what was it?—the best possible outcome.”

Kaede grits her teeth. “He was innocent. We both know he was innocent.”

Monokuma places a paw over his mouth. “Puhpuhpuh, you seem awfully sure about that—but what evidence do you have to prove that’s the truth?”

“The fact that I did it!?” she shouts in the bear’s face. 

“That’s one truth, buuuuut,” he says. “If everybody thinks something else is the truth and that the truth is a lie, who can _really_ say which one’s true?”

She shakes her head. “Stop trying to mess with me. I know what happened. And you—!” Kaede points a shaking finger at him. “You broke your own rules to kill Saihara-kun!”

“Oh?” Monokuma tilts his head to the side. “Is that what happened? Am I the one who killed him? Or did he kill himself? Or did you kill him? Or did Amami-kun kill him? It’s hard to say, don’t you think?”

“I said,” Kaede clenches her fists. “To stop messing with me. I was there. I killed Amami-kun, and I should be the one who’s dead!” 

“But you’re not, are you?” he smiles. 

Kaede doesn’t respond.

“Really, we should both be grateful to Saihara-kun. It’s such a pain when the first killer gets away with it, but thanks to his sacrifice, you get to live and the game has been jumpstarted!” he nods. “Yep! I would’ve taken either of you as the first killer, and he decided to trade his life for yours!” 

Her anger subsides only for a brief moment due to an overwhelming feeling of confusion. “Why would you have taken either of us? And-and,” she pushes herself to her feet to point down at the bear. “And why is it ‘a pain when the first killer gets away?’ Aren’t those the rules of your game?”

“Ah,” he says turning away from her. “So many mysteries and so few answers! It’d be nice if we had a detective around here! Oh wait!”

Kaede’s about to lunge forward to wring Monokuma’s furry, robotic neck when she hears a knock at her door. She whips her head towards the sound, and Monokuma’s gone the moment she turns back. With a huff, she nearly slams her door open. 

Momota’s standing there. He says, “Akamatsu—” at roughly the same time she practically shouts, “What do you want?!”

He’s taken aback for a moment before a smile oddly enough breaks out on his face. “You’re still angry.”

Kaede nods. 

“Are you still going to fight Monokuma?”

“I was about to when you interrupted me,” she sighs and folds her arms. “He came by to taunt me, and there’s no Gonta-kun in my room to stop me from punching him right in his stupid face.”

“You’d get executed for that.”

“It’d be worth it.”

Momota’s still smiling. “It would. I understand why Saihara felt so strongly about you,” his expression changes as a seriousness begins to creep into his voice. “You’re a strong person, Akamatsu, and I think that if anyone can stop Monokuma, it’s you.” He pumps a fist. “But just because I’m rooting for you doesn’t mean I won’t try my hardest, too!”

Kaede’s not in the mood for optimistic speeches, but she somehow finds herself baring a tired smile. “Yeah… but did you just come here to say that? To cheer me on?”

“Nah,” he pulls something out from behind his back. Kaede blinks as he extends Saihara’s hat towards her. “I also wanted to give you this. I picked it up before we left the trial. I figured,” he shrugs, “you probably don’t have a lot of memories of Saihara, but maybe having something of his, well… maybe it’d help.”

Kaede takes the hat gently from his hand and holds it to her chest. She turns it over a few times in her hands. The anger begins to drain from her as she stares at the black fabric. Without the emotional fire that had been blazing through her, she suddenly becomes aware of the ache behind her eyes, the rawness of her throat, and the soreness of her hands. 

All she feels is exhaustion. She says, “Thank you, Momota-kun… I apologize for yelling at you earlier.”

“Don’t,” Momota says. “It’s good that you’re angry. It means you still want to fight for him. And,” he looks her straight in the eyes. “I also wanted to say that I believe you.”

She stares up at him. “Huh?”

“I believe what you said at the trial,” he says. “I believe that neither you or Saihara killed Amami.” 

Kaede feels something rotten beginning to bubble up in her throat. Her eyes dart to the side, and she opens her mouth when Momota reaches towards the hat in her hands. He plucks it from her grip and places it on to her head. “Also hats are for wearing, Akamatsu,” he’s grinning again. 

She sighs and reaches up to adjust the hat. When it’s in place, Kaede realizes just how much of Saihara’s vision was regularly obscured. She tilts her head up higher than before to look Momota in the eyes. Many different things run through her mind to say, but she settles on, “Thank you, Momota-kun, for a lot of things, but…” her eyes dart to the ground and the brim of Saihara’s hat blocks out Momota completely. “Let’s talk tomorrow, alright? I’d like to be alone right now.” 

He nods. “I understand.” He turns to leave. “Just don’t blame yourself, alright? This isn’t anybody’s fault besides Monokuma’s. Got that?”

Kaede leans against her doorframe. “Got it,” she lies.

Momota nods at her again, and she closes the door.

Kaede looks at herself in her bathroom mirror. Saihara’s hat is designed for hiding behind, and she tilts her head this way and that to take in the angles of her face as they appear and are obscured again. 

Then she sighs and simply stares at her reflection. Only one of her eyes blinks back at her. She pulls the hat down lower.

Amami and Saihara’s blood is on her hands. The killing game has begun.

Kaede clenches her fists and takes a deep breath. She says to herself, “But I’m still alive,” she stares at her one eye in the mirror. “And I won’t let anyone else die.

“I’ll save everyone, and I’ll find the mastermind. It’s a promise, Saihara-kun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I assume eventually someone will write a story where Saihara dies in chapter 1 and Kaede gets to be the protagonist, and as someone who loves Saihara, I figured it might as well be me, haha. Also Saihara's execution is entirely too western in influence as it's based on a certain board game and being shot by a cupid. Basically, I wanted to make it as painful and drawn out as Kaede's, if not worse. The arrow at the end is also inspired by a certain spoiler-y death from RWBY. 
> 
> Edit: I will be posting this again in a future chapter to keep all of these amazing fanart this fic has been lucky enough to get together, but I also wanted to put this here if you want to see Saihara's execution drawn amazingly! http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/168426349832/imgur-mirror-here-w-full-resolution-images


	2. Daily Life I

__

_Amami Theater_

_“It was dark and I was alone and when I opened my eyes my blood ran down my face and I saw them take my only clue—my only gift— from my hand as I lay dying._

_“But now there is peace. It is still dark, but I am not alone anymore._

_“You have given me a friend._

_“He is still in shock, but I know he’ll come around. His memories are jumbled but I sorted through all the lives I’ve lived—one on top of the other, on top of the other—and look at me. I believe he can do it. It’s important to believe._

_“I am a survivor who couldn’t survive. And you have given me a detective who never saw the truth. Who will you give me next?_

_“Will you give me justice?_

_“No… it is too early for that. There is more suffering to be had. This game is far from over._

_“I hope he comes around soon. I know our next friend will be here any day now.”_

-

Kaede purposefully wakes up early the next morning. She hasn’t seen anyone besides Momota since the trial. The trial where, according to Monokuma, she lied and tried to get everyone executed. 

She places Saihara’s hat on her head. Saihara had been an expert at using it to hide. The thought makes Kaede’s limbs heavier and sparks a tightness around her eyes as does the sight of the small portrait of him above his door when she leaves her room. Amami’s peeks out from behind the staircase, and Kaede adjusts the brim of the hat. Amami’s portrait is blocked out completely when she leaves the room, the early morning sun shining through the glass doors. 

She follows along the path to the main school building, noting one less Exisal humming away in the dew covered grass. She finds herself almost thankful for the robotic buzzing as without them, the only sound echoing through the empty garden would be her own footsteps and sense of guilt. 

It is just her inside the school, when she reaches the main building, and the sharp discomfort of complete silence the Exisals had been keeping away crashes over her like a wave. 

Kaede sighs. Her voice echoes, and the hall sighs back. This is what she wanted. She wanted to be alone. If Monokuma gets what he wants, the emptiness will soon be the norm. Kaede has spent far, far too much time puzzling over exactly what Monokuma wants.

She finally hears the noises of another living person when she pushes open the door to the cafeteria. Tojo is placing intricately folded napkins on the long table made for sixteen when she snaps her head up to the sounds of Kaede stepping into the room. 

Her eyes quickly dart up to Saihara’s hat, and Kaede can’t blame her for the way she pauses, almost confused at how to respond to the sight before her. Kaede decides to fight against the awkwardness beginning to hang in the air. “Good morning, Tojo-san.”

Tojo blinks at her words and seems to suddenly recall her well trained politeness all at once. “Ah, good morning, Akamatsu-san, please excuse me for not saying so earlier.” She straightens her shoulders, easily folding her hands in front of her. “I was not expecting to see anyone else this early in the morning, so I am not quite setup yet.”

Kaede walks towards the table and peers down at Tojo’s careful arrangements laid out in front of half the chairs. “Are you setting up for breakfast all by yourself?” 

“I am,” Tojo says. Kaede opens her mouth, but Tojo quickly cuts off any comments with, “It is really no trouble. There is no need to feel any guilt over me simply acting as any maid would.”

Kaede’s mouth twists in to a line, but the words that leave her are, “I see.” When she looks back to Tojo’s face, Saihara’s hat blocks out the taller girl’s eyes, leaving her stating her offer to Tojo’s mouth. “Can I still help you with anything? I mean, I am up early, so I might as well.”

She shakes her head. “It is quite alright, Akamatsu-san, really.” She moves away from the table towards the kitchen. “Also,” she hesitates, “perhaps you should not push yourself too hard this morning, if you do not mind me saying so.”

“Actually, Tojo-san,” Kaede says, following her. “I would kind of prefer having something to do right now.” She tugs at the brim of Saihara’s hat. “It’s going to be kind of… difficult to face everyone when they come in, so, ah, having an excuse to leave the room to help you bring food in and out would actually be really nice. So, you’d kind of be doing me a favor if you let me help.”

Tojo nods. “I see. Very well, in that case, would you like to help me set up the tea I was preparing? It should be ready any moment now.”

Kaede scurries after her into the kitchen. In between setting out plates and assisting Tojo with the finishing touches of her far too beautifully designed dishes, Kaede feels the other girl’s eyes on her. Or more specifically, on the space just above her. Kaede says to the last set of silverware she sets out, “you… don’t think it’s inappropriate that I’m wearing this, do you?”

Tojo stutters in her own preparations. “Ah,” she says. “No, I don’t. I apologize for staring, Akamatsu-san.”

Kaede shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. Besides,” she sighs, staring down at her own warped reflection in the glass plate. “I’m probably going to have a lot more attention once everyone else shows up.” Tojo does not respond, so Kaede lets out a humorless laugh, and says more helplessly than she intended, “I mean, I deserve it, right? For… almost killing everyone.”

Tojo moves to stand across from her on the other side of the table. “You have killed no one, Akamatsu-san,” she says. Kaede’s throat tightens. “And no one is angry at you for what happened, or at least they would be foolish to be.”

She frowns. “What do you mean?” she says to the bottom half of Tojo’s face.

“Our true enemy is Monokuma. Not you,” she says with a finality that keeps Kaede quiet. Something about that—about ordering her around, about Kaede’s lack of response to being ordered around—makes the other girl uncomfortable. She busies herself with straightening the silverware in front of her when she asks moments later, “When did you get Saihara-san’s hat, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“Oh,” Kaede says. “Momota-kun gave it to me last night.”

“That was very kind of him.”

“Yeah, I guess it was,” Kaede begins to follow Tojo back to the kitchen when the other girl seems satisfied with the arrangement of each fork. “I also guess that’s at least one other person who doesn’t hate me.”

Tojo shakes her head as she places her hand to push the door open. “No one hates you, Akamatsu-san.”

Behind them, the doors to the cafeteria open, and Ouma strides in, hands folded behind his head. His eyes fall on Kaede, and the careless smile he had been wearing moments ago falls right off his face. 

Tojo says, “Good morning, Ouma-kun.”

Kaede quickly parrots after her, “Morning, Ouma-kun. You’re, ah, up early.”

He pulls out a chair at the table, saying, “Morning, Tojo-chan, Akamatsu-chan,” his smile has all the warmth of a blizzard when he says, “Saihara-chan’s hat.”

Kaede barely resists flinching. Tojo sounds so faraway when she speaks.

“Ouma-san,” Tojo reprimands. “If you have a problem you’d like to speak with Akamatsu-san about, you should discuss it with her like an adult rather than making snide remarks.”

“Tojo-chan,” he places his elbows on the table and rests his chin on folded fingers. “All I did was say good morning to everyone here.”

“Ouma-san—”

“It’s okay, Tojo-san,” Kaede says, stepping between them. “Really.”

Tojo gives her a questioning look that Kaede knows she doesn’t have the answer to.

Ouma shoots them a beaming smile. “Really, Tojo-chan. I was just complimenting Akamatsu-chan on her trophy.”

The words hit her like a freight train. 

The doors to the cafeteria open again, and Angie leads Gonta and Kiibo into the room easily between the grinning Ouma and the open mouthed girls. “Good morning, everyone!” Angie says, waving her hands in a half circle over her head. “God says it will be a beautiful day!”

Kiibo does not register the atmosphere either, as he turns to each of them in turn, saying “Good morning, Ouma-kun. Good morning Tojo-san. Good morning,” his eyes fall on Saihara’s hat, and to his credit he only stutters for a moment when he finishes with, “A-Akamatsu-san. Yes. Good morning, Akamatsu-san.”

Kaede shakes her head in an attempt to rid herself of Ouma’s earlier comment. Having to explain why she was gaping at the small boy would be the worst possible outcome. “Good morning, Kiibo-kun,” she gives him a strained smile. She presses on with the small talk, taking care to block out Ouma with the brim of Saihara’s hat. “How are you this morning?”

“I am good,” he says. “Thank you for asking. Ah,” he turns to Gonta. “Gonta-kun said he founds something interesting in the garden.”

“Oh, did you?” she turns to him. Part of her decides that Ouma does not exist if she can’t see him. “Did you, ah, finally find some bugs?”

Gonta’s looking at Saihara’s hat and shakes himself at the sound of Kaede’s voice being directed towards him. “A-ah, no, sadly. But when Gonta was looking, he found something else.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ouma leans his chair back on two legs. “What you find? Another hopeless secret tunnel?”

“Oh, no,” he says. “It was not a tunnel. It was—”

Tojo clears her throat. “Gokuhara-san, I hope you do not mind me interrupting, but perhaps this would be information best to share when everyone is here?”

“O-oh, yes,” he says quickly. “Tojo-san is right.”

“Hmmm,” Angie hums, waltzing over to a chair. “Yeah, God thinks that’s best, too.” 

“Ah, then God is right, as well,” he quickly amends. “Also,” he turns to Kaede. “Akamatsu-san, um, Gonta does not know if you noticed, but you are wearing—”

“Oh, she knows,” Ouma says, rocking back and forth. 

Gonta looks back and forth between them, seeming to be the first of the arrivals to pick up the tension in the air. Kaede says, “It’s fine Gonta-kun.” She pulls it down lower over her eyes. “It might be a bit strange, but…” she isn’t sure how she wants to finish that statement. Bile rises in her throat, sick, and sour, and part of Kaede wants—prays—for them to react the same way Ouma did. 

Kiibo supplies, “if it helps you feel better, then I see no problem with it.”

“Yep, yep,” Angie says. “God says that if Kaede wants to, she should wear anything she wants that reminds her of Shuuichi.”

Kaede barely suppress the second flinch to overtake her that morning. She turns her face away, not even Saihara’s hat protecting her from the barrage of trying too hard to understand stares mixed with Ouma’s cold gaze. “I-I think I’ll stick with just the hat, but thanks everyone.”

“Gonta thinks it looks nice on Akamatsu-san.”

“I do as well,” says Tojo behind her, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Ouma snorts. 

The doors practically fling open again, and Kaede is beginning to wonder if Ouma had somehow managed to figure out the exact timing of their classmates’ entrances beforehand to avoid any of Tojo’s scolding for his cutting remarks. 

Like clockwork, Tojo opens her mouth, and Momota barrages into the cafeteria, seemingly in the middle of an argument with Iruma. Hoshi wanders in past them, not sparing the two paused in the doorframe a second glance. Shinguji follows him, eyes trained on the glob of spit that flies from Iruma’s mouth and onto Momota’s shirt. 

Momota explodes, and Iruma begins quivering. Hoshi takes a seat without a word to anyone other than a mumbled morning back to Gonta when the other boy greets him with too much good-natured cheer for anyone to ignore without a guilty conscience. He stares up at Kaede and Tojo huddled together by the kitchen door. 

Kaede watches his round eyes slowly move up to Saihara’s hat and then back down to her one visible eye. He comes to some silent conclusion and nods at her. “Morning.”

She nods back, voice audible only to him over the racket happening in the doorway. “Morning, Hoshi-kun.” Kiibo seems to have been pulled into the argument at the door, and Angie has jumped up from her seat to dance around the forming group. 

Tojo chooses to ignore the commotion in favor of smiling down at him as well. “Good morning, Hoshi-san. Would you like tea or coffee this morning?”

Shinguji has now taken a seat beside him, and his unnerving gaze roves over Kaede. Hoshi doesn’t need to glance behind him to recognize what’s making her squirm. “Coffee,” he says quickly. 

“I-I’ll get it,” Kaede volunteers, shooting both Hoshi and Tojo a grateful look as she hurries to hide back in the kitchen. 

The door swings shut behind her, muffling the growing voices of her assembling classmates greeting each other and laughing and just _talking_. This is what she wanted. Everyone’s happy. Almost everyone is on her side. The thought makes her stomach churn. She shuffles over to the kitchen sink and splashes her too warm face with water. There is a loud swell in the conversation outside, and Kaede hears the sound of the cafeteria doors being slammed open and swinging closed again over the running faucet. 

She should probably see what the commotion is about. She should probably bring Hoshi his coffee. She should probably stop wishing everyone would just simply hate her as much as she hates herself. Kaede looks at her one eye reflected in the surface of Tojo’s sparklingly polished countertops. Saihara hasn’t even been dead a full day. Laughter carries through the doors. Someone must have told a funny joke. 

Kaede shakes her head and moves to busy herself with coffee mugs when Tojo reenters the kitchen, a particularly vulgar jab from Iruma floating through the doors after her. Tojo says, “Iruma-san, Shinguji-san, and Shirogane-san would also like coffee.” 

Tojo is politely pretending Kaede wasn’t just wallowing in self-pity a moment ago, so she replies as nonchalantly as she can, “Shirogane-san came by?”

“She did,” Tojo says. “As did Chabashira-san and Yumeno-san.” She begins pouring coffee into the cups Kaede sets out in a neat row before her. “We are still waiting on Harukawa-san, and Momota-san left to go find you.”

Kaede blinks up at her. “But I’m right here?”

“I attempted to tell him that,” Tojo says evenly. “But he left before I—or anyone else—  
could finish explaining.”

Kaede thinks to herself that the phrase ‘Akamatsu-san is in the kitchen’ is not a particularly long explanation, but then again, she also thinks that Momota probably did not wait a particularly long time. She says, “Well, ah, did he mention what he wanted to see me about?”

Tojo balances three of the mugs on a tray, and Kaede takes the handles of the other two. “He didn’t say anything specific, but I believe that he is likely worried about you.” She walks to the door, beginning to push it open with her shoulder. Kaede follows behind. “I trust he is well intentioned, so at least his heart is in the right place. It’d be nice if it was in a more patient place, but that is a conversation for another time.”

Kaede nods along, finding herself smiling again at the thought of Momota haphazardly running around the school so he can shout words of encouragement at her. She thinks there are definitely people on her side—she murdered two people and they’re on her side in a heartbeat—and she enters the cafeteria, half-hiding behind Tojo’s skirts when she places coffee mugs in front of Hoshi and Shirogane. 

Shirogane looks up at her. “Ah, Akamatsu-san, Momota-kun was looking for,” she spies Saihara’s hat. “Ah, um, Momota-kun was looking for you earlier.”

Kaede nods. “I heard.” She takes a deep breath and prepares to finally attempt to break the tension swarming over her appearance. “Hey, Shirogane-san,” she smiles, sitting next to the other girl. “Can you wear other people’s hats without breaking out, or does that count as cosplaying?” 

She seems taken aback at the question, then furrows her brow in thought. “Ah, well, just a hat would probably be fine—although I’ve never really found a hat that looks good on me, to be honest.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Kaede says. “Oh, but what about jackets? Like imagine if you were on a date with someone, and it’s really cold so they put their jacket around you? What happens then?”

Shirogane stifles her laugh with a hand. “Ah, Akamatsu-san, you’re making me sad! I’ve never had that happen before.” She gasps. “Oh, but I sure hope I wouldn’t—breaking out in hives would simply ruin the moment.”

Kaede smiles back at the other girl. With the protection of Saihara’s hat, she carefully examines how her classmates have reacted to her sudden reappearance. 

Maki slipped silently into the cafeteria at some point during her brief conversation with Shirogane, and appears to now be curtly answering Tojo’s questions about her preferred breakfast. Hoshi is calmly sipping his coffee, listening to a story Shinguji is telling specifically to him and Kiibo with Iruma not so discreetly listening in from behind the robot. Angie chatters away to an enthusiastic Gonta and a half-asleep Yumeno, Tenko watching protectively over the latter and occasionally cooing at her when she takes a bite of her breakfast. 

She notices that Ouma seems to be by himself, despite sitting near the center of the table. Her eyes wander over everyone, all of them too wrapped up in their own conversations to notice her staring. But Kaede looks at Ouma, and Ouma looks straight back at her. He grins and gives her an odd wave from his island of isolation. 

Kaede turns away. Shirogane—who did just observe her entire staring contest—appears to be on the edge of saying something, when Momota suddenly bursts through the doors. He’s out of breath, and shouts “Guys, I searched everywhere, and I couldn’t find Akamatsu! I think—”

“I’m right here, Momota-kun,” she says standing. Everyone turns to her. “I was, ah, just in the kitchen helping Tojo-san.”

He lets out a sigh of relief. “You fucking scared me with that disappearing act. Don’t do that shit again.”

Tenko squawks, “Akamatsu-san did nothing wrong. It’s your own fault that you ran around the entire school. Just like a dumb boy not to listen to anyone.”

“Hey, I just really wanted to find her, okay?” he collapses into the chair next to Kaede. 

Tenko frowns, before she seems to notice Kaede for the first time. “Akamatsu-san,” she says, anger draining out of her voice. “How are you feeling this morning? It is alright if you need more time after yesterday—in fact, Tenko can escort you back to your room to rest, if you want.”

“No, no,” she shakes her head. “That’s kind of you to offer, but it’s really okay. In fact,” she lets out a breath, and attempts to direct her gaze to everyone. “I wanted to apologize for what happened at the trial.”

“There is no need,” Tenko says with a sharp nod.

“Oh?” Maki says. “She did try and kill us all. Did you already forget that?”

Tenko snaps her head to the other girl. “Tenko did not forget. And Tenko also does not think that was ever Akamatsu-san’s intention. She said she wanted to protect everyone, and Tenko believes her.” 

Kaede remembers Tenko trying to shield her from Monokuma alongside Gonta and Momota, but still finds herself taken aback by her words. “Chabashira-san…”

Yumeno covers her ear closest to Tenko with her hands. “You’re being so loud,” she mumbles. “I can barely take a nap on this nice, soft table.”

“Ah—! Tenko is sorry, Yumeno-san,” she quickly says. “She just really thinks that everyone should still listen to Akamatsu-san.”

Momota nods. “I do, too. In fact,” he pumps his fists. “I don’t think she or Saihara killed Amami.”

Maki gives him a withering look. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh,” Kiibo says suddenly. “Do you think the entire thing was planned out by Monokuma?”

Momota says, “I’m starting to. We never really got a full explanation of why everything happened—” Kaede’s throat tightens “—so chances are that fucking bear had something to do with it.”

Kiibo nods. “I see.”

“Oh, oh, oh,” Angie chants. “That reminds Angie of something she wanted to ask. So, after Shuuichi killed Rantarou, why didn’t he claim first prize? Angie’s tried asking God, but he must be taking a nap right now.”

“How astute of you, Angie-san,” says Shinguji. “I was thinking about that myself last night as well.”

Kaede pulls Saihara’s hat down over her eyes as discreetly as she can. Her guilt bubbles up in her stomach, and she finds herself in the mood to do anything other than eat breakfast. She finds herself in the mood to bolt straight from the room. 

Hoshi pulls down his own hat. “Makes a strange situation stranger, doesn’t it? Guess we’ll never know now.”

“Yup,” Ouma says cheerfully. “Saihara-chan and Amami-chan both took their secrets to the grave.” He puffs out his cheeks. “So rude of them. Buuut,” he shoots Kaede a smile. “If Saihara-chan were to have told anyone anything before the trial, who would he have told?”

“Oi, Bakamatsu,” Iruma says, leaning back in her chair. “Shyhara ever say anything weird before he kicked it?”

Kaede’s fists clench. Her voice is tight when she says, “No, he didn’t.”

Tojo clears her throat. “If I may interject, I do recall speaking with him and Akamatsu-san during the investigation about first prize. He, ah,” she gives Kaede a painfully sympathetic look. “He speculated over the killer’s reasons for not claiming first prize, and suggested that…”

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut. She isn’t sure who this looks worse for—Saihara or herself. Tojo’s voice drops a few decibels when she says, “he suggested the idea that the killer forced a trial because they wanted to kill everyone else.”

The silence that falls over the once vibrantly alive table is deafening. Kaede doesn’t dare look up from the sight of her clenched fists in her lap. Regret washes over her anew. If she had claimed first prize, if she had argued against him better, if she hadn’t dropped the damn shot put. 

Momota slams both hands on the table. “What the hell are you all doing?” He shouts. “You were all fucking there! You all fucking saw him let himself get executed to save our sorry asses, and now you’re really going to sit here and think he was some kind of fucking psychopath?”

“Th-that’s right!” Gonta stutters. “Gonta remembers that Saihara-kun confessed, too, which does not make sense if he wanted to hurt us. So Gonta does not believe that he was that kind of person!”

“If anything,” Kiibo adds. “Saihara-kun’s actions support Momota-kun’s theory that Monokuma was somehow involved, yes?”

“No,” Maki shakes her head. “You’re all over thinking it because you don’t want to admit you were tricked.” 

“We were not tricked!” Tenko says. “Saihara-san may have been a boy, but Tenko could tell he was still a good person and that he cared about all of us,” she looks to Kaede. “Especially Akamatsu-san.”

“But in the end, he still murdered someone and still put us all in a position to die,” Ouma says easily. “Man, this game’s gonna be no fun at all if you guys sympathize with murderers this easily.”

“He wasn’t a murderer!” Kaede shouts before she can stop herself. Everyone turns to her. “He… he didn’t murder anyone.” She tugs down the brim of Saihara’s hat. “That’s not what happened.” 

Ouma speaks up, “So what did happen, Akamatsu-chan?”

She turns her head away, biting the inside of her cheek and does not say another word. 

Tojo comes to her rescue one again. Addressing Gonta, she says, “This is likely unrelated, but I believe Gokuhara-san had information he wanted to share with everyone.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Gonta perks up. “Gonta was looking for bugs this morning and found something strange in the grass.”

Everyone hesitantly turns to Gonta. Everyone but Ouma, whose cold gaze remains fixed on Kaede, and Kaede, herself, who pulls the brim of Saihara’s hat down as far as she can. 

Shirogane says, “Oh, what was it?”

“There was this stone slab in the grass,” he says. “And Gonta noticed that there were letters on it.”

“Letters?” Iruma asks. “Did they spell out anything, big dick?”

Gonta seems confused at her nickname, but continues, “Not that Gonta could tell, but,” he deflates. “Gonta is not that smart. Maybe someone else should look at it later.”

“Still,” Ouma says, finally turning away from Kaede. “This is a good find. Looks like you are useful for something after all.”

“Ouma-san, it is very rude to—” Tojo begins.

“Thank you!” Gonta cheers. 

Tojo blinks before simply shaking her head. Momota says, “Right, so we’ve got a sabotaged trial and strange letters. Where do we go from here?”

Monokuma pops out of the ground. “That sounds like my cue!”

Momota rounds on him. “Oi, you got a lot of fucking nerve showing your face here after—”

“Now, now, is that anyway to talk to your headmaster?” he says. “Especially when he comes baring gifts?”

Kaede blinks. “Gifts?” An anger she had forgotten suddenly surges through her at seeing the bear’s face. “We don’t want any-any,” she waves her hands vaguely, “any _fucking_ gifts from the likes of you!”

“Y-yeah!” Momota agrees, barely suppressing his surprise at Kaede’s outburst. “It’s just another one of your fucking motives again, isn’t it?”

“Nope, nope, nope!” Monokuma chants. “Wrong like usual. Hopefully my adorable children will get here soon to show off my fabulous presents!”

At his words, the four remaining Monokubs pop up, three of them awkwardly shuffled to one side away from the robotic one. Monotarou says, “U-uh, here we are, Dad. And we, uh, we got those presents right here!” 

“Ah, good, good,” Monokuma says, seeming not to notice the tension between his ‘children,’ “Now our school has many mysteries and much more to explore! After every trial, a little more of it will be magically revealed. Puhuhuh, that’s just another wonderful reason to look forward to trials, isn’t it?”

Kaede stands, starting towards the bear, when the robotic Monokub thrusts four strange objects in her face. “THESE-ARE-FOR-YOU,” it says, every word stilted. “PLEASE-EXPLORE-AND-GET-ALONG-WITH-ALL-YOUR-FRIENDS.”

As soon as the objects are piled in her hands, the robot disappears. The other three Monokubs exchange worried glances between each other before sinking back into the floor themselves. 

Kaede says, “So are we supposed to just wander around and figure out where these go?”

“That’s right!” Monokuma says. “Now go, explore and be ultimate detectives!” 

He vanishes as Kaede takes an aggressive step toward him again. “Coward,” she mumbles.

Momota stands, and leans towards her to get a better view of the objects cradled in her hands. “So should we split up and look around or something?” 

Tojo approaches. “That would likely be best. There are fourteen of us and four objects. I believe it would make the most sense for us to divide into two groups of three and four.”

“Gonta,” Ouma says. “You and me should be together, okay?”

Gonta seems startled. “You want to work with Gonta?”

“Of course I do,” he says. “You found those letters in the grass all by yourself, after all. I want to know what other useful things you can do.”

“O-oh, thank you, Ouma-kun,” he says. “Gonta will try his best to not let you down.”

“Angie will come, too,” she says. “In case anything bad happens, God says that Gonta can use his body to protect Angie!”

To Kaede’s shock, Gonta appears undisturbed by this line of reasoning. “That is correct! Gonta will do his very best to protect all his classmates!”

Momota turns to Kaede and says, “You and me together, right Akamatsu?”

She blinks up at him. “Ah, sure, if you want.”

Tenko shoots to her feet. “Akamatsu-san, you do not have to go with an awful boy if you do not want to. If he is forcing you to do anything, let Tenko know, and she will use her Neo-Aikido to protect you.”

“It’s alright, Chabashira-san,” Kaede says before Momota can shout back at her. “There’s actually something I want to talk to Momota-kun about.”

She frowns. “Okay, but remember that you can always join Tenko and Yumeno-san.”

Yumeno looks up from the table. “Huh, we’re going together?”

“Yes,” she says. “It is best if Yumeno-san stays with Tenko so she can protect her from any dangers Monokuma might have waiting for us.”

Iruma suddenly stands up, knocking her chair to the floor. “I-is there really danger? A-all of you v-virgins keep talking about this being dangerous.” She hurries over to Tenko. “I-I’m coming—I mean,” she coughs, “The great archangel Iruma has decided to grace you with her presence.” 

Tenko raises her eyebrows. “Alright… Tenko’s group has three people… Kiibo-san, would you like to come, too?”

The robot blinks. “Me?” 

“Yes, Tenko has some questions she wants to ask you.” 

Kiibo’s face is a mixture of confusion and absolute delight that he is being included. “O-okay! I will do my best to help with the exploration!” 

Momota nods. “Cool. Oi, Tojo, Harukawa. You wanna come with me and Akamatsu?”

Maki’s face darkens. “I’d rather choke on glass.”

Kaede flinches. Tojo coughs. “I would be happy to, Momota-san.”

Shinguji speaks before Momota can properly process Maki’s response. “So then the final group will be myself, Shirogane-san, Hoshi-kun, and Harukawa-san.” He gives her a long look. “If she wants to that is.”

“I don’t,” Maki stands, and makes her way out of the cafeteria alone. 

Momota frowns. “I’m gonna talk to her later. But now,” he turns back to Kaede. “Let’s divide these up.” He picks up the red ball, weighing it in his hand. “I have a good feeling about this one.” 

“Do you ‘believe’ in it, Momota-chan?” Ouma laughs. Staring up at Kaede, he asks, “Which one do I get, Akamatsu-chan?”

Kaede looks at the remaining objects in her hands and blandly thinks that she has no opinion. She shuffles them around in her arms, and hands him the crank. “This one will probably need to be attached to something and then turned,” she reasons. “That should be easy with Gonta-kun’s strength.”

“Yes!” he agrees. “Gonta would be happy to use his strength to aid in the exploration.”

Ouma turns it over a few times but doesn’t protest. “Alright. Let’s get going then. Ooh, ooh, Gonta,” he says. “Can I ride on your shoulders?”

“Nyahaha! Angie wants to do that, too!” 

Kaede opens her mouth to defend him, when he leans down and easily picks up both of his smaller classmates. He straightens, and both of them adjust themselves to perch on each of his broad shoulders. Ouma points a finger towards the door. “Forward, Gonta! Charge!”

Gonta takes his instructions more literally than anyone had been expecting and bolts out of the room, Angie and Ouma clinging on to him like bull riders desperate not to be thrown off. 

Kaede and Momota are still staring openmouthed when Shinguji approaches. “I must admit I’m a bit disappointed to miss out on observing whatever is going to happen between those three,” he says. “Also, unless Chabashira-san’s group has any problems with it, I would prefer to take the ocarina.”

Shirogane clasps her hands. “I was hoping we would get that one. Zelda is such a classic,” she gasps. “I’ll have to put together a cosplay for her later to commemorate this!”

Kaede shakes herself back to reality. “Ah, right,” she hands it to him. Shinguji walks out of the room with purposeful strides, Shirogane trailing along behind mumbling to a half-listening Hoshi about how she isn’t sure how Shinguji is going to play an ocarina with a mask on.

Kaede turns to Tenko. “Uh, Chabashira-san, are you okay with taking this,” she turns it over a few times, “ticket-thing?” 

“Tenko is fine with it,” she says. “Also Tenko would like to talk to Akamatsu-san later,” she narrows her eyes at Momota, “when you’re done with that awful boy, that is.”

He throws his hands in the air. “Why do you have a problem with me? Kiibo’s in your group, and he’s a boy!”

Kaede’s about to respond before the logic of that statement catches up with her. She furrows her brow. “Is he?”

Tenko turns towards the robot in question. “Tenko actually wanted to ask Kiibo-san about that. Do you consider yourself to be a terrible boy, Kiibo-san?” 

Kiibo shrugs. “I don’t really have an opinion, but everyone refers to me as masculine.”

“So you just go with that?” Kaede asks, genuinely curious. 

“I guess,” he says. “As long as I am treated like any other student, I have no preference.”

Iruma slaps his shoulder. “Kiibs, if you ever want to have anything down there, you let me know as soon as possible, got it? You’d basically be coming to the master if you get my help.”

Kaede wince as she tries not to think about the implications of that statement. Kiibo is bright eyed, and says, “Thank you for the offer, Iruma-san. You will be the first to know if I do decide to pursue that route.”

“Don’t, man,” advises Momota. “Seriously, don’t.”

Iruma says, “Don’t listen to him,” wraps an arm around Kiibo’s shoulders and steers him out of the room. 

Tenko shifts from foot to foot, aware she needs to run after them. She says, “Tenko has to leave, but, Akamatsu-san, do not forget that Tenko is here for you. Tenko saw the way some of those awful boys were treating you, and she will protect you in a heartbeat, okay?”

“Thank you, Chabashira-san,” Kaede gives her a small smile. “You really believe in me, don’t you?”

“Tenko does,” she says. 

Iruma’s voice carries through the doors. “Oi, are we fucking pulling out or what?” 

“Tenko is coming!” she calls back. She spins on her heel. “Yumeno-san, wake up! We’re leaving now.”

“Huh?” Yumeno lifts her head from the table again, a line of drool dripping from her mouth. “Is something happening?” 

Tenko gives Kaede one last reassuring look, and hurries over to the smaller girl. 

Tojo says, “I believe the three of us should head out as well. Do either of you have any theories as to where to take our object?”

Momota tosses it up and down in one hand. “Uh, isn’t there a dragon statue or something? That’d be my first guess.”

“I agree with that,” Tojo says. “Well, let us make our way there.”

Kaede nods and walks alongside Tojo, Momota leading the three, still easily throwing the ball from one hand to the other. 

The ball goes back and forth, and Kaede silently counts the people who trust her,. Momota. Tenko. Tojo. She frowns. Maybe Kiibo and Hoshi. Maybe Gonta and Shirogane. 

Momota almost drops it and has to lunge forward to pull it to his chest. Tojo reprimands him. Kaede stares straight ahead. Not Ouma and Maki. Not herself. She bites her lip. Not Saihara and Amami.

They reach the statue and Momota places the ball in the dragon and the wall explodes and Kaede is pulled out of her self-loathing. Tojo starts forward, peering down the new hallway. “It seems this goes on for quite a ways. I wonder how much larger the school is than we were initially led to believe.”

“Seriously,” Momota says, beginning to pick his way through the rubble left by the wall. “Oi, that reminds me, Akamatsu? You had your talent lab on the first floor, right?”

She snaps her head to him. “Right. Iruma-san’s also opened up at the same time, but nobody else’s did, I think.” She crosses her arms. “Do you think there’s a specific pattern to them or something?”

“Perhaps,” answers Tojo. “If we assume we will eventually reach everyone’s, then I have to wonder what Amami-san’s lab is like.”

Momota rubs his chin in thought. “That’s actually a really good point. I have to admit I mostly brought it up because I’m excited about mine.”

“Ah, well,” Tojo says. “I suppose I would like to see mine as well.”

Kaede smiles at the two of them. Her thoughts wander to her talent lab. Her pianos. She hasn’t gotten to play since she woke up in the locker. She promised Saihara she would play for him. She bites the inside of her cheek. She also promised Saihara that she’d save him. 

Momota calls out to her, “Hey, Akamatsu, come look at this weird thing.” 

There’s an open chest in front of them, and Tojo’s holding what appears to be a flashlight in her gloved hands. “I have a feeling,” she begins. “That this is important. I think we should show it to everyone else before doing anything with it.”

“Aw,” Momota pouts. “But it’s got an ‘on’ switch right there. Why don’t the three of us just check it out now?”

Kaede squints at it. Tojo’s right—something about it does seem very, very important. The short list of people who trust her runs through her mind. A gnawing thought quietly suggests that they don’t have to share it with everyone else. She doesn’t have to believe in anyone else. She doesn’t have to live up to her own words. She doesn’t have to 

Kaede says, “Tojo-san’s right. I-I think we should wait.” She frowns. “We didn’t schedule a meet up point to talk about what we found, did we?”

“No,” Tojo sighs. “We will have to remember to schedule things better in the future. After we’re done, perhaps we should return to the gym or cafeteria and hope the others had the same idea.”

“Right, right,” Momota says. “Let’s do that after we’re done here.” Something seems to catch his attention, and he’s already running off when he shouts over his shoulder, “Let’s check out this room.”

Kaede and Tojo exchange a look. Tojo shakes her head. “Well, his heart is certainly in the right place, at least.” 

“Yeah,” Kaede laughs, tiredly. “It’s nice to have someone positive around though, even if he comes on a little strong.”

Momota pokes his head out of the door. “C’mon, it’s really cool in here!” 

Kaede calls, “We’ll be right there.”

The room is almost startlingly elegant. Momota throws his arms out to the sides when they enter. “Ta-da! Told you it was cool!”

Tojo’s hand is on her heart. “Oh my, everything is decorated in Victorian style, everything is so…” She smiles. “This is my lab, isn’t it?” 

“It’s beautiful, Tojo-san,” Kaede says, staring up at the chandelier shining above. “It fits you perfectly.”

“Ah,” she seems taken aback. “That is very kind of you to say, Akama—Momota-san, what are you doing?”

Kaede spins on her heel. Momota’s currently pulling at the shutters on the wall. “Look, there’s something behind here. It’s—” he shoves it open “—vacuums?”

Tojo peers inside. “And washing machines, too. How convenient—this will make cleaning the school much more efficient.” 

“‘Cleaning the school?’” Kaede says. “Tojo-san, you really don’t need to do that.”

“No, it’s fine,” she says. “Duty before self. That is the motto of any proper maid.”

“Still,” Momota says, looking up from tugging at the red curtains. “Cleaning the whole school’s a big fucking job for one person, isn’t it? We can’t ask you to do that.”

“Really, it’s fine,” she insists. “I am a maid. I clean, and I serve. Just like a pianist plays the piano or an astronaut explores space.”

Momota pulls a face as he walks back over to them. “I guess. Cleaning’s no fun no matter how you look at it though, right?”

Kaede says, “Well maybe. But maybe astronaut training is no fun to some people either—”

“The hell are you talking about?” Momota says. “Astronaut training is fucking awesome! In fact, I really need to get back into it—I’ve been slacking off these last few days.”

“I feel the same about my duties as a maid,” Tojo interjects. “And Akamatsu-san likely feels the same about practicing the piano.”

“Ah, I guess that is true,” Kaede says. “Well, anyway, we should keep exploring, right?”

“Actually,” Tojo says. “If it is not too much trouble, I would prefer to say here for a little longer to thoroughly examine my cleaning supplies. I will catch up with you soon when I am done.”

“Sounds good,” Momota’s already halfway out the door. “C’mon, Akamatsu, don’t leave me to explore by myself!”

“I-I’ll be there in a second!” she shouts as he disappears. “Uh, bye, Tojo-san, and, well,” she pulls down on the brim of Saihara’s hat. “Thank you for this morning, really.”

Tojo gives her a kind smile. “Of course, Akamastu-san. I,” she pauses. “I understand that a lot of our classmates are still… figuring out their feelings as to what has happened, but please know that I, personally, support you in full.”

“Tojo-san…” she says. Momota’s shouting carries through even the closed door, stirring the stillness between them. “I, uh, guess I better go before he gets into something he really shouldn’t. But thank you again.”

“It is no trouble,” she calls after her. 

Kaede finds Momota in the hall quickly slamming a green door closed behind him. He looks at her, fear in his eyes. “Uh, Momota-kun?”

“We’re not fucking going in there.” 

She raises her eyebrows. “Is it... bad?”

“It’s hell.”

She nods slowly. “Got it.”

Momota says no more about the room and begins heading towards the stairs. “Hey, what are you standing around for? We got places to explore!”

Kaede jogs to catch up with him. “Momota-kun,” she says watching him take the stairs two at a time. “You have too much energy for your own good.” 

“Nah,” he says as she walks calmly up the stairs behind him. “You just don’t have enough energy. Do you work out, Akamatsu?”

She reaches the top, glaring at him with her one visible eye. “Are you trying to imply something?”

“What?” he seems genuinely confused. “No, you just reminded me about my astronaut training, and I think we should do it together from now on.”

“Huh?”

“It’s settled then,” he says. “Let’s start tonight.”

“What?” Kaede says. “What’s settled? Momota-kun, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about us working together from now on,” Momota says. “We’re going to be a team, alright? Today, we’ll explore the school, and tomorrow we’ll beat up the mastermind.”

Again, Kaede’s mind swims with possible things to say to such grand statements. She settles on, “we’re finding the mastermind tomorrow?”

He shrugs. “Okay, maybe the next day, but the point is that we’re gonna figure this shit out, and,” he frowns. “And I know I can be kinda hotheaded, but you can rely on me.” He shoots her a smile, already heading to another door. “And I’m gonna rely on you, got it Kaede?”

Kaede finds herself smiling. She always somehow finds herself smiling around Momota. “Got it,” she smirks. “Kaito.”

He grins and pushes the door decorated with a tennis racket open, and Kaede catches it before he disappears completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you might be able to guess from the spiked chapter counter and the sheer length of this chapter, my goal for this fic has shifted to being a near complete rewrite of V3. Since this project is now way bigger than I originally intended, I am now lowkey looking for a potential beta reader.
> 
> Edit: Amami theater segments are inspired by System Restore by CarthagoDelenda!


	3. Daily Life II

Momota dribbles a tennis ball on a racket, leaning this way and that to keep it centered. “I have got to ask Hoshi to play a match with me later,” he says, eyes fixed on the ball bouncing up and down. “When I was taking lessons in middle school, everybody knew him—really big fucking deal.”

Kaede’s inspecting pitching machine. “You used to take lessons?” she asks distractedly. “Were you any good?”

“Please,” he snorts. “The great Momota Kaito is awesome at everything he tries.”

She looks to him, a wry smirk on her face. “Is that so?” 

“Hell yeah, it is, here,” he jerks his chin towards the racket stand. “Play me right now, I’ll show you.”

“I think I’ll have to pass,” Kaede says. “Besides—I doubt the others would appreciate it if we slacked off in exploring to play tennis.”

Momota frowns. “Guess you’re right, but still.” He hits the tennis ball up in the air higher than before and easily catches it when it comes back down from its arc. “We are definitely playing a game as part of training.”

She raises her eyebrows. “I doubt Hoshi-kun would appreciate us wandering around in his lab at night, either.”

“He doesn’t own the lab,” Momota says, walking over to her. “Well, I mean he does, but it’s not like anyone’s just gonna hang out and fucking stop other people from checking out their stuff.” He nods towards a door near the back. “By the way, what do you think’s in there?”

Kaede turns to approach it. “Shower room, maybe? Places like this usually have one, right?”

He drops the racket and ball into a pile near the edge of the net. “Let’s check it out. There might be something cool like, uh,” he frowns. “Self-dispensing soap or something?”

Kaede slowly turns around to give him a long look. Momota brushes past her and starts pushing the door open himself. “I couldn’t think of anything cool that’d be in a bathroom, alright? There’s probably just—” he steps inside “—uh. This… isn’t what I was expecting.”

Kaede pokes her head around him to peer inside the room. Her eyes widen. “This… looks like a prison,” she steps inside, gazing around with special attention directed towards the barred showers and the row of neatly hung handcuffs. “It’s still a shower room, but it…”

Momota opens one of the shower’s gates. “Definitely has showers at least,” he runs a hand through his hair. “Seriously, why the fuck is this like this? Shouldn’t it be more—I don’t know,” he gestures vaguely. “Tennis-y?”

“Well,” Kaede bites her lip. “Hoshi-kun did say he’s a criminal, so maybe this is Monokuma taunting him or something?” 

He snorts. “I fucking hate that bear.”

She approaches the lone window of the room, and says over her shoulder, “you’re not alone.” Kaede pushes it open. “Oh! Momo-Kaito, come look!”

“Find something?” he says, staring down over her head through the open window. “Oh, shit we have a pool!”

Below them, a long shallow pool runs the length of the room the window opens into. Standing around the edges of said pool were three of their classmates, all of whom turned their heads up in surprise at the sound of Momota’s voice. “Ah!” Shirogane gasps, pointing up towards them. “Shinguji-kun, Hoshi-kun, look!”

Momota grins and reaches a hand out through the window, happily waving to them. “Hello, down there!”

The three gather under the window. Between his mask and hat, not a single feature can be seen on Shinguji’s face from the angle they’re staring at him. “I assume this means your part of the school connects up with ours then?” 

“Guess so,” Momota calls down. He turns his head to Hoshi. “We’re actually in Hoshi’s research lab.”

His posture changes, and Kaede sees the traces of something slightly interested creeping through him. “That right?” he asks, keeping his voice level. “Anything I should know about in there or just tennis stuff?”

Kaede’s stomach drops, and she tugs at Momota’s sleeve. She lowers her voice so only he can hear, “should we tell him? You know, about this room?” 

Momota looks like he’s about to refute her immediately, then pauses. “Uh, well,” he rubs the back of his head. “He’s gonna see it later whether we tell him or not, right?”

“I know,” she says. “It just seems so cruel to show him.”

Shinguji’s the one to call out, “Are you two whispering something about our dear Hoshi-kun up there?”

Even from her place at the window, Kaede can see Shirogane wringing her hands and Hoshi sending the taller boy a dark look. “I’m not anybody’s ‘dear,’ you got that?” 

“Please excuse me then,” says Shinguji evenly. “Simply a slip of the tongue. However, my mistake aside, I believe our friends are still whispering.”

Kaede quickly shakes her head with exaggerated motion. “No, no—we’re just,” she looks at Momota who shrugs, as unsure what to say as her. “We’re, uh,” she sighs. “Hoshi-kun, we think Monokuma designed your lab to make fun of you.”

“Is that so?” he says slowly. 

“Sorry, man,” Momota says, always the first with encouragement. “Most of it has cool tennis stuff, though! And you should totally play a game with me later!” 

Hoshi seems to visibly deflate and turns away from them. “I told you before,” he says. “Tennis is behind me. And, personally,” he sighs, “if the bear designed it to laugh at me, then I don’t particularly feel like giving him the satisfaction.”

He begins to walk away, and Shirogane takes a step after him. “You’re not going to check out your lab?”

He shakes his head. “No point. You guys can play tennis if you want, but leave me out of it.” 

Kaede’s eyes follow him as he leaves the pool. She hears Shirogane mumble out, “Hoshi-kun,” then gasp. “W-wait! We’re not done exploring yet—!”

“I believe we should let him leave, Shirogane-san,” says Shinguji. “I don’t think there is much more to explore here anyway that the two of us can’t handle.”

“Ah, I guess you’re right,” she says, before turning her face up to Kaede and Momota. “Do you two need any help up there? Oh! And wasn’t Tojo-san with you? Did something happen to her?” 

Momota answers for them. “Nah, Tojo’s just distracted with some vacuums we found in her lab, that’s all. And,” he looks briefly to Kaede for confirmation. “I think we’re good? There’s probably not a lot more up here.” 

“Very well,” says Shinguji. “While we’re talking, should we perhaps schedule a place to meet up to discuss our findings?” 

“Oh, yes!” Kaede says. “We were just thinking about that a little while ago. Tell anyone else you run into that we’re going to all meet in the gym!”

“Understood,” he says. “Well then, Shirogane-san, should we keep investigating?”

“Ah, yes,” she replies. “But, it’s a bit troubling that Hoshi-kun left before he heard about our meeting plan…”

Momota yells, “Don’t worry about it! I’ll make sure to find him even if I have to run around the entire fucking school!”

Kaede remembers when Momota did just that for her only hours before. Kaede also finds herself smiling. Shirogane and Shinguji walk off, the former choosing to give them a last wave goodbye, which Momota eagerly returns. “So,” Kaede says once they are comfortably out of earshot. “Do you think I made the right call in telling Hoshi-kun?” 

“About his lab?” Momota asks, leaning away from the window. “I don’t think it was even a call. I mean,” he shrugs. “He was gonna find out either way. Might as well be from us.”

Kaede sighs and pulls Saihara’s hat down. “I know, I just—”

“Just nothing,” Momota turns, ready to leave. “You wanted to protect him—I get it. But sometimes the truth’s the truth, you know?” He shakes his head. “And Hoshi’s tough.” He shoots her a bright smile. “I’m sure he’ll be back to his usual self after I talk to him about our meeting.”

She doesn’t reply other than to raise her eyebrows at whatever Momota thinks Hoshi’s ‘usual self’ is. Kaede’s mind briefly flickers to the morning when Hoshi offered his life so everyone else could live on past the time limit. She remembers how Amami had shot him down and boldly said he would end the killing game himself. She remembers how Amami’s corpse boldly started the killing game itself.

Momota’s already leaving the room when Kaede shakes her head to clear it of ghosts. She ends up jogging the first few feet to fall in step with him, and she puts on her best carefree smile like a mask when he looks down at her. 

Outside of Hoshi’s lab, Kaede spies two more doors. She grips the handle of the larger one looming over them. It doesn’t budge an inch when she tries to pull it open. “Looks like it’s locked,” she says. She turns her head to Momota. “Other door then?”

“Yeah. Guess this is as far as we can go for now then,” he says on the short walk down the hall.

Kaede nods. “Seems like it. Monokuma said more of the school would open if there was another trial, but,” she frowns. She thinks of Amami’s corpse. “There isn’t going to be another trial.”

“Damn straight.”

She’s still smiling at his comment when she moves to pull open the red and gold door. Her fingers barely graze the handle, when it’s pushed open from the inside. Kaede steps back in shock, hearing the sound of Momota actually jumping behind her. 

Maki’s red eyes glare at them from the crack in the door. She quickly scans the two of them, and Kaede suddenly pulls her outstretched hand towards her chest as if she were burned. The motion must have been too late as Maki says with a sigh, “What do you want?” 

Momota recovers first. “We’re exploring this floor,” he smiles. “Guess you snuck past us at some point.”

Maki rolls her eyes but emerges from the slightest opening in door she can manage, careful to close it behind her. “I didn’t sneak past anyone. I simply walked up the stairs and came here.”

“Still,” he says. “Pretty stealthy for a childcare worker.” 

Her glare turns icy at the comment, a sneer rolling across her face. Something about her expression strikes a chord in Kaede, and an unexpected anger surges through her. “You don’t have to make that face,” she says before thinking. 

Maki turns her dark glare on Kaede, who swallows, doing her best to stand strong. “I’ll make any face I want.” There is no emotion in her voice.

“Listen, uh, Harukawa,” Momota says, clearly uncomfortable with the tension brewing between them. “We’re almost done looking around, so do you wanna come with us? All we’ve got left is this room.”

“This room is my talent lab,” she says flatly.

“Then you can give us the grand tour,” Kaede replies, attempting to smile at the other girl. “You’ve obviously already been inside, so you can show us around.”

“I’d rather—”

“Choke on glass?” Kaede finishes. Momota’s staring at her now, too, making her self-conscious enough to let out a nervous laugh. “You, uh, said that earlier when we asked if you wanted to explore with us.”

Maki’s expression is unchanged. “And my opinion hasn’t changed.”

Momota frowns. “You sure? I mean,” he puffs out his chest. “We’re pretty great. Me and Kaede are partners now, so there’s not much we can’t do. ”

Maki rolls her eyes. “You obviously can’t tell when to shut up.”

“Harukawa-san,” Kaede says, taking a step towards the girl. “I understand that you’re still angry about the trial and that you don’t like me, but you have no reasons to be rude to M-Kaito.” She takes a deep breath, hardening her resolve. “And all we want to do is look around your nursery center to see if there’s anything useful before we go meet with everyone else.”

“No one comes in this room,” she says. “And if you try, there will be screaming. Your—”

“Please, don’t make threats, Harukawa-san,” says Kaede. “I really don’t want to pick a fight about this, but you’re plainly being unreasonable about—”

“It’s my room,” Maki says. “I can do whatever I want with it.”

“But,” Momota’s scratching the back of his head. “We kind’ve already been in every other talent room we’ve seen, and everyone else seemed cool with it. I mean, even Hoshi didn’t mind and his was, uh…” Kaede sends him a pointed look. “Well, Hoshi has a pretty fucking rough past, and he didn’t care if we looked at his tennis stuff.”

Kaede nods in agreement. “Exactly. Is there a reason yours is different, Harukawa-san?”

She stiffens. “I don’t have to say anything to you.”

Kaede attempts to swallow her slowly mounting frustration. “Harukawa-san, you kind of do,” she says, purposefully staring her straight in the eyes. “The situation we’re in makes it hard to trust people, and I really, really,” she sighs, “really get that. But that’s what makes everyone cooperating even more important.” She pumps her fists. “You can not like me as much as you want, but we’re still going to get along.”

Momota—at the very least—is convinced by her speech. “Yeah! In fact,” he smiles. “I’ve decided that I believe in you, Harukawa. So let’s start working together right now.”

“You’re both delusional,” she says. “And I stand by what I said about this room.”

Momota seems more confused than anything else. “But why? Are you embarrassed about a bunch of cribs or baby dolls or something?”

“And I still don’t have to say anything to you, idiot.”

He opens his mouth to respond, but Kaede’s already beat him to it. “And I said that you have no reason to be so rude to Kaito,” she crosses her arms. 

“Oi, Kaede,” he says. “It’s fine—”

“It’s not, though,” Kaede says. “And, frankly, you deserve an apology.” She turns to Maki expectantly. “Well?”

Maki observes the situation coolly. “You’re treating me like I’m a child.”

Kaede sighs. “Maybe I am, but I wouldn’t if you’d—” she recalls the way Tojo reprimanded Ouma “—act like an adult instead of making snide comments.” 

Momota begins to attempt to get between them. “Listen—”

“Me? Act like an adult?” Maki says. “I’m not the one who’s been running around hiding behind a hat and Momota’s coattails all day.” 

Kaede’s blood turns cold. The confident answer she knows she should give (‘I have not been hiding’) dies in her throat. Instead she manages, “Kaito and I are friends. That’s why we’ve been spending so much time together,” and the words come out far less convincing than she intended. 

Momota attempts to back her up. “That’s right—we’re partners. And partners stick together.” He smiles, somehow. “Do you want to partner up with us, Harukawa?”

Kaede can think of nothing she wants less in that moment when Maki ignores him completely to say, “So you’re only hiding behind Saihara? That’s a pretty rude thing to do to someone who’s dead.” The words leave her mouth and Kaede flinches as if Maki had reached out to slap her across the face. Part of her thinks that it would have hurt less if she did. 

“Hey,” Momota barks. “Harukawa, that was really out of line—”

“No,” Kaede says, tugging down the brim of Saihara’s hat. The hypocrisy of the action makes her sick to her stomach. “She’s right. I’ve…” She shakes her head. “Let’s just go… we don’t have time for this.” 

Momota looks down at her, worry and a near desperate want to understand practically radiating off of him. He opens his mouth, but cuts the words off when he catches Maki standing as stoically as ever in the corner of his eye. He gives Kaede a curt nod, but his eyes never leave Maki when he says, “Yeah, we’ll be back, though. I’ve still got some stuff to say to you, Harukawa.”

Kaede’s already started the walk down the hallway, and he trails after her, calling back to Maki still standing with her arms crossed in front of the red and gold door, “We’re all meetin’ in the gym, Harukawa. You should come.”

Maki doesn’t respond, and Kaede’s nearing the stairs. Momota gives her a last look that Maki chooses not to find any meaning in, and heads after Kaede. 

He catches up to her when she’s halfway down the stairs. Taking them two at a time, he calls out, “You know she only said that shit to get us to leave, right? It’s all bullshit, and you shouldn’t listen to any of her—”

“It doesn’t matter why she said it,” Kaede answers without pausing in her flight down the stairs. “It’s true. I’m supposed to be leading everyone and I’ve been using Saihara-kun as an excuse to—”

The sounds of a door hurriedly clicking open causes Kaede to look up from under the brim of Saihara’s hat. She stutters to a stop, and Momota nearly crashes into her from behind. In front of them, the green door Momota had fled from earlier opens, and Tojo emerges, hastily brushing something with entirely too many legs off her shoulder. She seems nearly as surprised as them when she suddenly registers their presence. 

“Ah,” she says, regaining her composure. “I was just looking for you.”

Momota nods towards the door. “We’re not in the hell room.”

Tojo says, “I found that out the hard way, yes.” She folds her hands in front of her, the strange flashlight carefully gripped before her. “I’m afraid I spent more time examining the array of vacuums than I intended. Is,” she catches sight of Kaede’s face under the shadows of Saihara’s hat. “Ah, did everything go alright with your exploration upstairs?”

Kaede turns her face to the side. “We just finished.”

Tojo looks up to Momota for answers. He rubs the back of his neck. “We ran into some of the others, and, uh,” he mulls over his next words for what seems to Kaede to be a painfully long second before saying, “and we agreed to all meet in the gym to go over shit.”

“Very well,” Tojo says. “Perhaps you can fill me in on your findings then.”

“Guess that’s the plan, yeah,” Momota says.

“You two should go on ahead,” Kaede finally speaks up. “I… will be at the meeting, but,” she grips the straps of her backpack. “I’d like a little time alone first.”

Tojo says, “Akamatsu-san.”

Kaede manages a smile. “It’ll probably take a little while to round up everyone, yeah? I know it’s a bother, but just send someone to come get me before it starts—I don’t want to miss anything.”

“You sure?” Momota frowns. “Kaede, you remember what I said earlier? You can rely on me and shit.”

“I know,” she answers. “I just think that maybe I’ve been doing a lot of that today, and,” she shrugs. “I just need a little time alone with my piano… to de-stress. That’s all.”

He sighs. “You’re not budging on this, are you?”

She shakes her head. Tojo glances between them quizzically. “It would appear I missed quite a lot,” she says. 

Kaede forces a laugh. “I’m sure Kaito can explain everything on the way to the gym. Or maybe if you want to help him search for Hoshi-kun.”

“Oh, shit,” he says. “I forgot about that. Oi, Tojo, you round everyone else up, I’ll look for Hoshi, got it?”

“Is there something wrong with Hoshi-san?” Tojo asks. She furrows her brow. “Also when did you run into Hoshi-san?”

“There’s weird window thing—I’ll explain on the way.” Momota begins the walk back, and Tojo shoots one last concerned look towards Kaede before hurrying after him. 

Kaede waves after them as cheerfully as she can. The sounds of their footsteps—Momota’s loud stomps and Tojo’s heels softly clicking—fade into almost nothing before Kaede’s own heavy legs guide her to her talent lab.

The bright yellow walls and beautiful, untouched piano greet her. She slumps on to the piano bench before years of training turn her back into a straight line. There’s already music set up for assorted classics, and Kaede idly flips through before settling on one piece more out of a lack of care for playing anything specific than a deep want for a particular song. Clair de Lune is out of the question.

The rounded pattern of the notes comes easily, though perhaps more depressed than intended for the already melancholic song. Her chosen tempo is also likely slower than necessary, but Kaede chooses to let the moving melody linger over the repeating notes. Getting lost in the specifics of the music is easier than confronting the emotions it brings out, and letting the emotions of the piano speak for her is far, far easier than confronting her own hurt voice inside her head. 

She nears the end of the piece, and the sound of someone moving quickly and scurrying to a stop in the doorway echoes in the edge of her hearing. It’s too deliberate to be Momota’s stomping slippers, which means someone else has come to retrieve her. Kaede doesn’t look up from the sheet music in front of her. 

Her visitor doesn’t approach until she’s done. Kaede can’t help but sigh over the last notes that wash over the room. When the finality of the piece has sunk in, Tenko’s voice says, “That was beautiful, Akamatsu-san.”

Kaede’s first thought is how her chosen visitor could have been so much worse, and she nearly winces at the sharp reminder of how poorly she has been acting as a leader. She says, “Thank you, Chabashira-san,” and lies, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Tenko only arrived a little while ago,” she says, stepping hesitantly into the room. “She didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you or anything.”

“No, it’s okay,” Kaede says. “I’ve always kinda preferred playing in front of an audience anyway, if that makes sense.” She runs her fingers along the tops of the pristine keys. “Music is meant to be shared, after all.”

Tenko stops next to the piano bench. Her voice so much softer than the notes Kaede had been playing before. “Tenko is glad you didn’t mind sharing your music with her. What song were you playing?”

“Chopin,” Kaede answers. “The most famous of his Nocturne pieces. It’s actually kind of overplayed, but,” she flips the sheet music book closed. “I guess I’m a little low on inspiration right now.”

Tenko nods. “That is reasonable. Tenko doesn’t think anyone in our current situation would be able to be easily motivated to perform.”

“Ah, well,” Kaede pulls at the brim of Saihara’s hat. “I actually wanted to play one song yesterday,” Tenko’s looking at her confusedly until she says, “for Saihara-kun. But, that’s not a possibility anymore…”

“Tenko understands…” she says. She shifts from foot to foot. “Ah, Akamatsu-san, Tenko is supposed to get you for a group meeting, but if you need more time, Tenko can make something up.”

“No,” Kaede says. “I said I’d go, and,” she reaches for the brim of Saihara’s hat again before stopping herself midway through the action, “and I need to stop using Saihara-kun as an excuse for everything.” She lets out a humorless laugh, “in fact I’m doing that right now—hiding up here instead of going to a meeting I organized myself. I’m not much of a leader, am I?”

“Akamatsu-san,” Tenko says softly, gingerly taking a seat next to her. “Hiding your emotions or pretending they aren’t there doesn’t make you a good leader. Maybe you do need to put on a strong front sometimes, but,” she offers her a reassuring smile, “Tenko would rather follow someone who mourns their friends’ deaths than someone who acted like they didn’t matter. And Tenko wants to follow you.”

Kaede feels the beginning of tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “That’s very kind of you to say, Chabashira-san. But I’m afraid that I’ve let you down already,” she runs her fingers over the brim of Saihara’s hat, but doesn’t pull it down. “Did you know Saihara-kun used this to hide from people? I told him he shouldn’t, but… that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.” 

Tenko is quiet for a moment, thinking hard. “Tenko thinks… you should wear it anyway, and that… maybe it could mean something different for you than it did for him. It doesn’t have to be something you hide behind but,” she pauses, attempting to find the words, “but maybe something to remind you to work extra hard to look at the world around you.”

She puts a hand on Kaede’s shoulder, an almost out of place determined smile on her face. “And Tenko thinks you could also honor his memory with it, if you want.”

Kaede brushes her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “You’re going to make me cry, Chabashira-san,” she says, an odd happiness somehow finding its way into her words. 

“Ah! Tenko is sorry!” she says. “Unless crying is good right now. In that case, Akamatsu-san should cry as much as she wants.”

Kaede lets out a small laugh. “I think I might, but not right now.” She looks up at her, lifting her head as high as she needs to stop Saihara’s hat from blocking her out. “We’re late for the meeting, aren’t we?” And then she’s smiling. “Maybe I should practice ‘looking extra hard at the world’ then?”

Tenko returns her smile and jumps to her feet. “Tenko knows you can do it! And she will be behind you all the way.” 

Kaede stands. “Alright, but don’t let me hide behind you, got it?” she says. “You can flip me if I do.”

“Tenko can do that,” she says. 

Kaede’s left worrying slightly about how easily the other girl agreed, but when they arrive at the gym doors, Tenko steps back and makes a point of Kaede pushing them open to reveal their twelve classmates standing scattered before them in little groups. Even Maki is there, crossing her arms and standing a step away from everyone else. Their entrance goes relatively unnoticed, and Tenko nods to Kaede. 

She takes a deep breath before clearing her throat and clapping her hands. “Alright everyone,” she says. Twelve pairs of eyes turn on her. Kaede stands her ground like she couldn’t before in front of just Maki’s cold glare moments earlier. “Let’s report our findings.” 

There’s s brief awkward silence, and Kaede makes a point not to let a single muscle waver during the thick, uncomfortable quiet until Gonta says, “Uh, Gonta and Ouma-kun and Angie-san found a casino.” 

And with his words, conversation sparks alight anew. 

Ouma puffs out his cheeks and says, “I wanted to be the one to tell them.”

“Ah, Gonta is sorry!” 

Shirogane clasps her hands. “A casino? How dramatic! Oh, if I went there I’d feel just like a certain gothic lolita from a visual novel!”

Iruma examines her nails. “The only kind of gambling I do is strip poker. Any of you virgins be up for a game of that?”

“Oh, but Kiiboy couldn’t play,” says Ouma. “Guess he’d have to wait outside like the other useless robots.”

“I-I should be allowed to play any human game I want to!” Kiibo says indignantly. “Iruma-san, tell me the details of your game, and I will learn immediately.” 

Hoshi pulls down his hat. “You really don’t want to do that to yourself, kid.”

“God told Angie that the casino is a lot of fun, but that there isn’t anything important there,” says Angie. “God does think we should all totally meet there to have fun though!” 

“Alright,” Kaede says, breaking through the chatter. Just like that everyone’s attention turns back to her. She doesn’t need to turn around to know Tenko’s beaming with pride behind her. “Who’d like to go next?”

Shinguji steps forward. “Shirogane-san and I discovered that there is a pool, though the water is rather shallow.”

“Hoshi-kun was also there,” Shirogane adds insistently. “And, uh, Monokuma also came by to tell us that swimming is banned during night time, and,” she wrings her hands, “if anyone tries to, an alarm will sound and the Exisals will come after whoever broke the rule.”

Tojo’s visible eye widens. “That is a rather intense punishment for swimming after hours.”

Momota shakes his head. “Just like the fucking bear though. So that means the cafeteria, gym, and pool are off limits at night unless you wanna get killed for no damn reason.”

“So we’ll avoid the pool at night,” Kaede nods somberly in agreement, and turns to Tenko. “Chabashira-san, what did your group find?”

“It was fucking boring as shit,” says Iruma before quickly being shushed by one stern look from Kaede.

Tenko nearly jumps on the spot. “Tenko’s group found Yumeno-san’s amazing talent lab! It was truly befitting of an Ultimate Mage.”

“Ultimate Mage—” Yumeno pauses mid correction. “Y-yeah, there was a lotta magic stuff for a mage like me.” Her face goes blank. “I could probably do almost any spell with all the stuff in there…”

Tenko stage whispers to Kaede, “You may not be able to tell, but that face means Yumeno-san is happy.” 

Kaede looks at Yumeno staring vacantly back at her. “I… see.”

“Ooh, ooh!” says Angie. “Himiko, you should put on a magic show! God says it will be super amazing.”

Yumeno blinks. “I guess I could…” she says slowly. “If everyone wants me too… then maybe I could show off a few spells.”

“That sounds wonderful, Yumeno-san,” says Kaede. “My group also found a few talent labs.”

Momota nods. “Yeah, Hoshi, we already told you about yours, but there’s also Tojo’s, Gonta’s, and Harukawa’s on the second floor.”

Gonta gasps. “Gonta’s talent lab is open? Are there bugs?”

“Big guy,” Momota says. “There are so many goddamn bugs. You will not be fucking disappointed.”

Gonta’s smile grows even larger, and Kaede decides to hurry the conversation along, lest he decide to leave to befriend the insect hordes before they’re finished. “We also found one more thing,” she says. “Tojo-san, do you have the, uh, flashlight?”

Tojo steps forward. “We found this in a strange chest upstairs. While I was gathering everyone, I believe Shirogane-san asked me what it was, and Monokuma came by to inform us it was called a ‘Flashback Light.’”

“Flashback Light?” Kaede asks. “So it helps you remember… something?”

“Perhaps. I’m afraid I do not know the details,” Tojo says. “Only that we were told to use them when everyone is present or they will not… remember, I suppose.”

Momota snorts. “This is fucking proof then that our memories being missing is his fault.”

“I believe that is true, yes,” says Tojo. “But, for the time being, should I turn it on?” 

She looks to Kaede for an answer, and almost everyone follows her lead. Kaede takes a deep breath. “I think we should. It might be a risk, but,” she pumps her fists, “we’ll never make progress if we don’t try. Whenever you’re ready, Tojo-san.”

Tojo nods back at her and waits till everyone turns towards the strange mechanical flashlight in her hands. She presses the button, and Kaede’s world goes white. Then everything twists, and she feels her memories swim around her flashing, fast and burning, searing across her mind like a glowing brand.

The world fades back into existence Kaede gasps. “I… remember now… I,” she cradles her head in her hands, “I was chased and gave up my talent, my memories…”

“W-wait,” says Iruma. “Y-you were chased by—was it the Ultimate hunt?”

Momota shouts, “Hey! That’s what was after me!”

“Me, too,” says Kiibo. “I… assume that it was the same for everyone, then…”

“Ah, but,” says Shirogane. “What were they exactly? I-I can’t remember. I know it’s important, but I can’t…”

Hoshi nods. “Now that you mention it, I can’t recall anything, either. Just having to run. We all erased our memories willingly though… that’s the part that concerns me.”

Kaede blinks. Something else flashes through her, the gentlest, most familiar words whispering, _“I want to die, together, with everyone else…”_ and it terrifies her.

She shakes the words away as fast as they came. “W-wait, everyone stop. Didn’t Amami-kun say something about hunters before?”

“Hmm, that’s right,” says Ouma. “Our dead mysterious pretty boy seemed to have known a lot more than he ever was able to tell us.” His eyes slide to Kaede. “Real shame he can’t tell us anything now.” 

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut, and Tenko speaks for her. “Dwelling on that will solve nothing. What we need to do now is decide where to go from here with this information.” She looks to Kaede. “What do you think we should do now?”

“You and Chabashira have a plan together?” drawls Yumeno. “I wanna hear it.”

Gonta also nods. “Gonta would also like to hear Akamatsu-san’s plan.”

Maki speaks up for the first time since she entered the gym. “How dumb can you all be?” she says. The liveliness of the conversation screeches to a halt. 

Momota turns to her. “Oi, Harukawa. You’re forgetting what we talked about earlier.”

She shakes her head. “You talked at me until I was forced to come here to shut you up. I never agreed to anything.”

“But you’re here,” says Kaede, Maki’s cold red eyes turning on her. She barely suppresses the rising urge to duck behind Tenko for protection. “And you’re part of the group.”

“I’d prefer not to be part of any group led by someone who attempted to kill everyone,” she says. “If you all want to put your faith in someone like Akamatsu, leave me out of it.”

Tenko says tersely from behind Kaede, “What do you mean ‘someone like Akamatsu-san?’” 

She rolls her eyes. “I mean someone driven by naïve trust, who’d blindly place their faith in a murderer because they smiled at them.” Maki shakes her head. “The fact that you’ve all forgiven her is unbelievable.” 

Momota takes a step towards her saying, “Harukawa, that’s enough.” 

“Harukawa-san,” says Kaede. “No one has to forgive me for what I’ve done, but acting the way you are only makes us weaker and plays into what Monokuma wants. Being uncooperative actively endangers everyone else, and I am not going to tolerate that.”

“Then it’s your lives on the line,” she says, a dark look on her face. “Not mine. And if you keep up that attitude then you’re going to be the first to go.” She takes a step forward, and Kaede involuntarily takes a step back. Something about the look in Maki’s eyes sending fear down her spine like ice. Something about it makes her feel like a helpless prey animal about to be tore to shreds. And Maki takes another step forward. “I personally wouldn’t be surprised if someone tried something tonight with someone like you. Everyone must be thinking about how easy it’d be. You’re plainly the easiest target, and—”

Kaede opens her mouth to likely stutter out a too quiet defense against Maki’s words, but is beaten to the punch by Tenko leaping forward and slamming the open palm of her hand into Maki’s jaw. The moment of silence that follows is deafening. 

Maki jerks backwards, hand reaching up to gently touch the place of impact, more surprised than anything else. Tenko’s standing between them now in a battle stance. “Tenko is very sorry, Harukawa-san, but boy or girl, Tenko will not stand idly while her friends are being threatened. That was simply a mild warning strike, but Tenko will use her Neo-Aikido if anyone tries to attack Akamatsu-san or any of the girls.”

“Except for Harukawa-chan?” chimes Ouma.

He goes ignored, as Kaede says, “Ch-Chabashira-san, you didn’t need to,” Maki’s predator eyes flash through her mind, “do that…”

Maki straightens her posture, and her fists are clenched with a tight, furious control. The glare she sends Tenko is one of pure death. Kaede takes a step backwards, but Momota says, “Harukawa, are you—”

Maki’s pigtails whip around her as her head snaps to the direction of the exit, and she marches out without another word, arms stiffly held at her sides, and nails biting in her palms. Tenko doesn’t relax her battle stance until the doors swing shut behind her. “Perhaps Tenko overreacted,” she says, a touch more nervous than before, “but just now she sensed a killing intent coming from Harukawa-san. Please understand that she had to do something…” 

Tenko looks around the room, eyes lingering on a slightly less blank faced Yumeno.

Kaede blinks. “‘Killing intent?’”

Momota shakes his head. “Chabashira, she was way out of line, yeah, but you can’t just hit a defenseless babysitter. I’m gonna go talk—”

“Ah, Momota-san,” says Tojo. “I hate to intrude, but I do not believe that is the best course of action right now.”

Hoshi sighs. “Yeah, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave her alone for a while. Same goes to you, Chabashira, if you feel like apologizing.”

“Tenko will apologize for acting rashly later, but not for defending Akamatsu-san,” she says. “When Tenko used her Neo-Aikido against Harukawa-san, she sensed something off about her. Tenko stands by that.” 

“Really?” says Shinguji. “That is quite impressive to gleam an individual’s intent from striking them. I would be very interested in observing your technique.”

“Tenko would prefer if you did not,” she says. 

“W-wait, everyone,” says Kaede. She turns to Tenko. “What did you mean by ‘killing intent?’ Was Harukawa-san planning to… surely she didn’t want to kill me just then?” 

“Tenko can’t know for sure,” she says. “But Tenko has been in battle for self-defense many times before, and the energy Harukawa-san was giving off was something…” she searches for the right word, “insidious.”

“Hmm,” says Ouma. “So you don’t know for sure. What do you think, Akamatsu-chan? You were the one she was threatening after all. Did you feel like you were about to be killed?”

Kaede opens and closes her mouth a few times. “I… don’t know what I think. B-but,” she strengthens her stance and makes eye contact with the now unnoticeably unsettled people filling the room. “We still all need to stand together.”

“Oh?” says Ouma. “Even with someone murderous like Harukawa-chan? And what about the mastermind hiding among us? Should we stand together with them?”

Kaede presses her mouth into a thin line when she says, “There is reason to suspect someone is not who they say they are, yes, but blindly doubting each other and keeping secrets will get us nowhere.” 

A silence falls over the room again, and Tojo clears her throat. “I believe that everyone is understandably a little on edge. Perhaps we should adjourn our meeting for the time being?” 

“Yes, I think that’s best,” Kaede nods. “Let’s all meet at breakfast tomorrow.”

A series of nods and grunts meet her as they file out of the gym. Kaede makes to wait to let everyone else leave before her, Tenko still at her side. With everyone’s eyes finally off of her, she lets herself finally acknowledge the shakiness in her legs and turmoil in her stomach. 

Yumeno pauses before them and gives Tenko a long look before leaving without a word. The action causes Tenko to mumble to Kaede, “Tenko will begin writing an apology to Harukawa-san tonight.”

“Glad to hear it,” says Momota from behind them. 

Tenko spins on her heel. “Just like an awful boy to eavesdrop.”

“I wasn’t fucking eavesdropping, I was just,” he rubs the back of his head. “Listening in.”

To preempt whatever response is likely circulating through Tenko’s mind, Kaede says, “Is there something you wanted, Kaito?”

Tenko says, “Kaito!?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Look, I get that Harukawa’s been really shitty to you today, but it’s kinda my fault she came to the meeting in the first place.” He sighs. “Sorry, Kaede.”

“Kaede!?”

“No, you were right to bring her,” Kaede responds. “It would’ve been bad if she missed the Flashback Light because she,” she lets out a breath, “might want to kill me.”

He shakes his head. “That isn’t going to fucking happen, alright? Me and Chabashira, here apparently, are here to look out for you.” He smiles. “And with a little training, I’m sure you can take on any babysitter.”

“Can someone explain to Tenko what is going on!?”

“I think Harukawa-san is a childcare worker,” Kaede answers. “And, Chabashira-san, Kaito and I are partners now.”

She blanches. “You’re partners with an awful boy? Tenko only left you alone for an hour!”

Momota laughs. “Hey, I’m not that bad. And, as your partner,” his face turns serious. “I’m gonna try and talk to Harukawa later. I mean, not right now, but, you know.”

“I get it,” says Kaede. “Do you still want to train tonight?”

“Training?” says Tenko.

“Yeah,” he answers. “Me and Kaede are gonna start training at night to get stronger.”

She crosses her arms. “Tenko will come, too. She doesn’t like the idea of Akamatsu-san being with an awful boy alone at night.”

“Chabashira,” Momota says. “You can invite yourself along without insulting me.”

“We’d be happy to have you,” says Kaede. 

The two bicker a bit more, and Kaede looks out at the empty gym from under her hat and sees the day stretch out before her. She’s free until tomorrow morning, and Momota and Tenko are behind her, ready to chat, offer encouragement, and fight. 

When she leaves her room to train that night, her thoughts are still full of the day before. It all happened so quickly and so slowly, and she’s so wrapped up in it that she almost doesn’t notice Shinguji calmly peering out the glass doors when she moves to push them open.

“I wasn’t expecting to see anyone tonight,” he says. “But it would appear I’ve been proven wrong once again. You’re up rather late, Akamatsu-san.”

She jumps at his voice. “Ah, good evening Shinguji-kun. I guess I am,” she says. “But, uh, what are you doing up at this hour?”

He points a bandaged finger out through the glass panes of the door. Her eyes follow it, and she catches the sight of Momota and Tenko standing in odd poses near the arbor. “I am unsure what is going on between them, but it has captured my attention.”

“Oh,” Kaede laughs. “They’re just getting ready for our night training.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Night training? That sounds very interesting, Akamatsu-san.”

She blinks back at him. “Do you want to come, too, Shinguji-kun?”

“That is a kind offer,” says Shinguji. “But I would prefer to simply observe, if it is not a bother to you.”

“It’s okay with me,” Kaede shrugs. “But,” she frowns. “I guess this also means we’re not being very subtle about it?”

“No,” he says evenly. “But, if I may speak frankly, if stealth was your goal, Momota-kun and Chabashira-san are likely not the best company.”

She laughs. “You’re probably right. Goodnight, Shinguji-kun.” She moves to push the door open, and join her two too loud friends. 

He says, “And to you, Akamatsu-san.” And Kaede steps out into a night filled with the sound of Tenko indignantly teaching Momota the beginnings of Neo-Aikido.

-

The next morning when Kaede wakes up stiff and sore from trying to keep up with an astronaut and a martial artist, she sees a small video player on her table. Kaede picks up the brightly colored player with tiny letters on the back labeling it the “Monokubs Pad” and turns it on. 

She nearly drops it when the words “Harukawa Maki: Ultimate Assassin” appear on the small screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been using "Ultimate" for the sake of brevity, and it was only on this chapter that I realized I have no idea how the localization is going to handle "Super High School Level Hunt," so I made something up. Also as you may have guessed from the ending, motives will be the same, but play out in different ways.


	4. Daily Life III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for chapter two and chapter six at the end.

Kaede speeds out of her room like a bullet. Her legs and arms protest in sharp spikes of soreness after her attempts at exercise the night before. The sheer physicality necessary to perform even the basics of Neo-Aikido had been a surprise. The sheer amount of danger the main practitioner of Neo-Aikido is in was also a surprise. Her rapid-fire knocks on Tenko’s door had gone unanswered, and though some part of Kaede knew a host of reasonable explanations existed, her first instinct at not being answered was to sprint around the school in a panic. 

The video player jostles back and forth in her backpack as she races along the thankfully cleared garden path, nearly knocking a slightly dazed Kiibo to the ground when he tries to greet her at the front of the school. Kaede’s quick shout of an apology to him, causes her to slow down enough to register Tojo dutifully sweeping the dirt gathering around the front doors. 

Tojo’s already looking her way due to Kiibo’s squawking. “Is everything alright, Akamatsu-san? You seem distressed.” 

Kaede hurries to her, Kiibo a few confused steps behind. “Tojo-san, have you see Chabashira-san? It’s really important.”

“Not since yesterday, I’m afraid. The two of you are the first ones I’ve seen this morning,” she answers, then looking over Kaede’s shoulder. “Kiibo-san, have you seen anyone else?” 

“I have not,” he answers. “My guess is that everyone else is still asleep.” Suddenly he seems very proud of himself. “They should try to get an earlier start on their days. I am always very punctual with my sleep schedule, and am happy to see at least a few of my fellow classmates are as well.”

Kaede’s not listening. “That’s really nice, Kiibo-kun. Tojo-san, are you absolutely sure you haven’t seen anyone else? Is there any chance someone slipped past you or something?”

Tojo furrows her one visible eyebrow. “I believe… there is always a chance of that, but I do not know why someone would do such a thing.” She frowns. “Akamatsu-san, is there something the matter with Chabashira-san?” Then, she seems to realize something all of a sudden. “Oh, Akamatsu-san, did you receive a video player as well this morning?”

“You got one, too?” Kaede asks. 

Kiibo announces, “I received one as well!” in a vain attempt to continue being part of the conversation. 

Tojo nods. “I did. Though I believe it was not meant for me.”

“Mine wasn’t addressed to me either,” Kaede says. “I wonder if there was a mistake or something…”

“Akamatsu-san,” says Kiibo, cutting off her train of thought. “Did you get a video meant for Chabashira-san?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “It isn’t like that. I just really need to talk to her as soon as possible. For… other reasons.”

Tojo and Kiibo exchange a look. “Well,” Tojo says. “I believe everyone will gather for breakfast soon. And we will likely need to discuss the strange videos then as well.”

“That sounds very efficient, Tojo-san,” says Kiibo. “And speaking of efficiency, I wanted to ask you a question about what you’re doing right now.”

Kaede raises her eyebrows at him. “Kiibo-kun, there is currently a crisis going on and you want to ask Tojo-san about sweeping?” 

“It’ll be very quick, and there is little we can do about the ‘crisis’ at this present moment,” Kiibo gives Kaede a reassuring smile, and turns to Tojo. “Tojo-san, I am curious as to why are you using a broom for this job. Wouldn’t a vacuum be more effective?”

Kaede presses both hands to her face and doesn’t even bother to hide the groan that escapes her. Tojo is slightly taken aback at the mundane question, but answers, “Ah, well, Kiibo-san, vacuums are more suited for cleaning floors inside, and,” she spares a look at Kaede massaging her temples, “would be a bit too powerful for what I need when simply clearing the walkway. So a broom is sufficient.”

“I see,” he hums. 

Kaede says, “Kiibo-kun, maybe you could ask Tojo-san these questions over breakfast.” She shoots Tojo a beseeching look. “Please?”

“Ah, yes. Perhaps it would be wise to move this discussion to the cafeteria,” Tojo says. “I’d be happy to answer your questions about cleaning while we wait for the others there, Kiibo-san.”

Kaede sends Tojo another grateful look before they ascend through the school towards the cafeteria. At their destination, Kaede doesn’t even try to contain her nervous energy and begins pacing back and forth across the long room, Tojo's wary eyes following her with concern. Kiibo’s voice amiably asking the other girl questions about the nuances of housekeeping provides a humming soundtrack to the sound of Kaede’s nerves fraying at the seems.

Gonta and Angie push open the cafeteria doors not a second too early. Kaede’s head snaps to them. Gonta’s in the middle of issuing a good morning when Kaede says, “Did you two also get video players?”

Angie tilts her head to the side in an exaggerate motion, arms folded easily behind her back. “Are you talking about the motive videos?” she asks, tilting the other way. “Because that’s what Angie got this morning and Gonta, too—God says everyone got one!”

“Uh, God did not tell Gonta anything,” Gonta says putting a hand to his chin. “But he did get a strange video.” 

Tojo stands from her seat at the table. “If that’s the case, then it can be assumed that everyone got one.”

Angie puffs out her cheeks. “Angie just said that God told her that.”

Tojo frowns, unsure how to respond. Kaede claps her hands. “Gonta-kun, Angie-san,” she says. “Were your videos addressed to you?”

“No,” says Gonta. “Gonta’s video said it was for—”

“Wait!” shouts Kiibo. “Gonta-kun, do not say another word. Revealing who has whose video is likely a bad idea if the current situation is what I think it is.”

Kaede turns to him. “What kind of situation do you think this is?” she frowns. “And why didn’t you say something earlier when we were waiting around?”

Kiibo triumphantly places his hands on his hips. “I thought it would be best to wait for everyone else to present my theory.”

“Is that why you spent the last twenty minutes asking Tojo-san about cleaning?” she asks flatly. 

Tojo clears her throat. “While I understand that we are waiting on the others to wakeup, perhaps we should send someone out to gather anyone who might simply be wandering around the school?”

“Oh, oh!” says Angie. “Angie and Gonta already took care of that. Kaito was up when Angie left her room, and he told us that we should go to the cafeteria since Kirumi would probably be there.”

“So,” says Kaede slowly. “Kaito’s taking care of it, and you and Gonta-kun… did what?”

Angie throws her arms in the air. “We came to the cafeteria! God told Angie that everyone would be meeting here!”

“But Kaito told you to—never mind,” Kaede shakes her head. “Guess there’s nothing we can do now but wait.” 

At her words, Angie and Gonta nod, and Kiibo eagerly turns to Tojo, the beginning of a question about dusting already leaving his mechanical mouth. The relief Kaede feels when the room slowly fills with their classmates rolls through her tired limbs in waves. When Tenko finally enters the room alongside Yumeno, it surges to an ocean. 

Kaede hurries over to her and lowers her voice to a near indistinguishable whisper below the ambient chatter. “Are you alright, Chabashira-san?”

Tenko blinks up at her. “Uh, good morning, Akamatsu-san,” she begins. “Tenko is fine… she got a weird video, but she’s fine.” She glances around the room, before ducking her head lower to Kaede’s. “Did something happen? Does Tenko need to use her Neo-Aikido on someone?”

“No!” Kaede shouts, the sudden volume of her voice turning a few heads. Kaede laughs nervously and addresses everyone when she says, “I was just saying that no one should fight right now, and we should all be friends... and get along!” Kaede internally thanks Saihara’s hat for obscuring the slim beads of sweat she knows are emerging on her forehead. 

Yumeno frowns. “You sound like that robot bear… the robot-robot one.”

Kaede gives a slightly more natural laugh. “Ah, yeah, I guess I kind of did.”

Tenko nods. “That is a good observation, Yumeno-san, but Akamatsu-san is right.” She raises her voice to be heard over the last few conversations—Kaede woefully picks out Kiibo’s voice asking about vacuums among them. “We may have been given another motive, but we all need to work together to keep everyone safe, even the awful boys.” 

Ouma speaks up. “Oh? Is that what you think?”

“That you’re awful?” Tenko pulls a face. “Tenko thinks she has made that pretty clear.”

A strange smile creeps on to his face. “Now that’s the better attitude to have,” he folds his hands behind his head. “You want to fight half the people here—stick with that. Oh, oh! And make sure to punch someone like you did with Harukawa-chan yesterday!” 

Tenko curls her lip into a sneer. “It was not a punch. It was—”

Kaede steps between them. “No one is punching anyone—” she spies Tenko’s betrayed face, “using Neo-Aikido on anyone. Instead we’re going to calmly wait for everyone to show up, and then we’re going to calmly talk about what to do with the videos.” She takes a deep breath, “and everyone is going to be calm and—”

The cafeteria doors slam open behind her, sending a piercing smack of wood hitting wood resounding through the room. Kaede doesn’t need to even turn around to finish thinking: Goddamnit, Kaito. 

The boy in question begins shouting as Hoshi and Shirogane make a much quieter entrance around him. “Harukawa won’t fucking come out of her lab,” he announces before pumping a fist. “Who here’s with me to try and get her to come out?” 

Kaede almost feels bad for him when the deafening silence greets his enthusiasm. She’d feel worse if there was a person on the planet she wanted to see less than Maki at that moment. 

Tojo opts to break the awkwardness with a soft cough into her gloved hand. “Ahem, Momota-san, I believe Harukawa-san might be averse to joining another group meeting right now, so—since everyone else is here—it may be wise to start without her and have someone fill her in later.”

For a second, Kaede thinks he’s on the edge of arguing with her when he lets out a frustrated sigh and rubs the back of his neck. “Fine—you’re probably right. Guess I’ll talk to her later,” he says. The energy in his voice leaps back tenfold when he spies Kaede and moves to clap a hand on her shoulder. “Alright, if we’re starting then we better fucking start. Kaede—what should we do, fearless leader?”

“Right,” she says, smiling despite herself. “First—to make sure we’re all on the same page—this morning everyone got a video that we can assume is the next motive. Except something probably went wrong somewhere since it seems like everyone got someone else’s video.”

Shirogane gasps. “W-wait. Everyone got someone else’s?”

Iruma snorts. “Yeah. Didn’t you fucking watch yours, Shittygane?” 

“I-I did, but,” she begins wringing her hands. “But I think it was _my_ video, you know? I mean, it had my name on it and everything so…”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “You got your own video?”

Shirogane nods weakly. “Is that bad? Did no one else…” she looks around the room at the blank stares. “Oh.” 

“Well,” Kaede says. “I guess that makes my decision slightly easier then.” She takes a deep breath. “I think…" she prepares for the incoming hurricane, "that the best solution to this is that we all watch them together.”

Kiibo is the first to jump up. “Akamatsu-san! What kind of suggestion is that?”

Under the weight of a dozen suddenly hostile stares, Kaede bites back her real answers. A suggestion that exposes the assassin hiding among the group who probably wants to kill me and Chabashira-san. A suggestion that ensures nobody makes stupid plans on top of each other that get people killed like I did with Amami. A suggestion that means I don’t trust half of you as much as I say I do. 

Instead, with Kiibo baring down on her, she chooses, “I think the best way to tackle this motive is to confront it head on instead of just hoping it goes away by itself.”

Kiibo’s shaking his head, something confused and almost hurt in his expression. “But the situation we have been handed allows us to ignore the videos completely—as long as everyone agrees not to trade, there is no motive.” He looks at Shirogane wilting in the corner of the room. “And Shirogane-san’s already admitted to watching her video, so I do not believe her situation is a problem.”

“Th-that sounds right,” says Gonta.

“Angie thinks so, too!” she says. “God says that trading the videos is a bad idea.”

Momota’s giving Kaede a hard look that nearly makes her reach for the brim of Saihara’s hat. Kiibo says, “Returning the videos to their owners would be playing right into Monokuma’s hands.”

Kaede bites her lip and racks her brain for a reason they should listen to her that’s not ‘I don’t trust you,’ when Hoshi comes to her rescue. “I agree with Akamatsu,” he says. “I say we trade them back or watch them together. Don’t really care which.” 

“Hmm, Hoshi-chan and Akamatsu-chan, of all people, have the right idea,” chirps Ouma. “So that makes three for watching—oh, better include Shirogane-chan!—four for watching and how many was it against?” 

Kaede whips towards him and is in such a state of shock at being defended by Ouma that Hoshi’s the one who says, “What do you mean by ‘of all people?’”

“Oh, I didn’t mean anything in particular by it,” Ouma smiles. “Just that with your past, Hoshi-chan, you and Akamatsu-chan have more in common than you think.”

“What the fuck does that even mean?” says Momota, finding his voice. “Oi, Kaede—you kill a bunch of mafia members at some point?”

Hoshi just sighs and pulls at his hat.

Kaede's shaking her head. "No, I--why are we even talking about this? Look,” she straightens her posture, preparing to put her foot down, “I know you don’t agree, Kiibo-kun, but I’m the leader, and I have a plan that we’re going to follow. Tomorrow, everyone gets together in the projection room, and we watch all the videos as a group. That way everything’s out in the open, and no one can sneak around. It’s the safest plan.”

Kiibo folds his arms but does not challenge her. The chorus of blank faces before her do not challenge her. Kaede isn’t sure if she should be happy about that or not. 

Ouma hums again. “Akamatsu-chan, do you think your friends would sneak around behind your back? That’s not very trusting of you,” he sniffles. “You should be more like Kiiboy and believe in everyone.” 

“D-Do not call me that!” Kiibo shouts.

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “What are you talking about? You were agreeing with me not even a minute ago.”

“I guess I was!” he smiles. “Of course, I was lying earlier—though which one’s a lie is a little tricky to figure out, isn’t it?” 

Tenko stage whispers to Kaede, “Can Tenko flip him?” 

“No,” says Kaede. “At least, not right now—maybe later.”

“Waaaah!” Ouma bursts into tears. “Akamatsu-chan and Chabashira-chan are going to beat me up like they did to Harukawa-chan!” 

“Ouma,” says Hoshi. Suddenly all attention snaps to him as he speaks with the greatest authority Kaede has ever heard. “Shut up.”

And Ouma does, the sobs from earlier fizzling into a blank slate in seconds. Seemingly satisfied, Hoshi turns to Kaede. “Akamatsu,” he says, voice a degree kinder. “Your plan to watch the videos is…?”

“R-Right,” she answers his prompting. “Tomorrow night. Projection room. Iruma-san, do you think you could find a way to hook the video players up to the projector?”

“If I don’t fucking get executed for tampering with them, then yeah,” she says, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “The great Iruma Miu can easily do something as pathetically boring as that. It’d be easier than making a virgin c—”

“Then I’ll leave it to you,” Kaede smiles.

“W-Wait, I could get in trouble for—”

“I sure hope Akamatsu-chan’s movie night lives up to my expectations,” Ouma trills as he makes his exit. 

Iruma’s protests echo dully in the background over the noise of everyone slowly meandering out of the room. Momota turns to Kaede and announces, “Still not sure about your plan, Kaede, but I’m gonna go relay everything to Harukawa. See you la—” 

“Wait!” Kaede lunges forward and grabs his loose sleeve. “Kaito, you—um,” she glances around the room quickly, and then, in a hushed voice, “I need to show you something about Harukawa-san. I don’t think you should be alone with her—I don’t think anyone should be alone with her.”

He frowns, but lowers his volume to match hers. “Why’s that?”

She raises one finger to signal him to wait, and calls out, “Chabashira-san? There’s something I need to ask you about really quick.” 

Tenko perks up at the sound of her name and easily walks over once she sees Yumeno exit the room. “What’s the matter, Akamatsu-san?” she jerks her thumb at Momota. “Do you need Tenko to flip him?” 

“I thought we were cool, Chabashira,” says Momota. 

“Even if you are marginally more acceptable than most awful boys,” she says. “Tenko will still not hesitate to use her Neo-Aikido to defend Akamatsu-san.”

“Kaito’s not the one you need to worry about protecting me from,” Kaede says. The two turn to her immediately, but she nods her head towards the door where the last few stragglers—Tojo, Kiibo, and a sniveling Iruma—linger. “I need to show you something, but I’d kind of prefer to keep it quiet for right now.”

Tenko says, “Should we go to Tenko’s room?” at the same time Momota turns to shout at the door, “We’re having a private meeting in here!”

Iruma points a shaking finger at him. “S-Stop fucking ordering me around like I’m your sub, you oversized otter!”

“Ah, Iruma-san,” says Tojo, pointedly choosing to ignore her comment. “Would you like some help in setting up the projector? Perhaps I could be of assistance.”

“I suppose I could help, too, then,” says Kiibo. “I still have qualms about this plan, but…” he turns to Tojo, eyes shining bright, “I would like to ask you a few more questions, if you don’t mind.”

Tojo smiles down at the little robot. “I’d be happy to help, Kiibo-san.”

He beams back, and Iruma’s eyes dart between them. “K-Kiibo, you-you like machines and computers and shit more than maid fetishes, right?”

Tojo is visibly taken aback. Kiibo says, “Iruma-san, I may be a robot, but that does not mean I am interested in technology. Thinking that would be the case is blatant discrimination against robots. And I personally would rather listen to Tojo-san." He beams up at the startled maid. "She has many interesting things to say about the proper behaviors for leading a refined human life, and I would like to learn from her.” 

“Ah, thank you, Kiibo-san, that is very kind of you,” says Tojo. “But, perhaps, we should have this conversation while helping Iruma-san, however?”

He nods. “I agree. And I would be very grateful if you could tell me more about being a maid on our way.” 

The two make to the leave the room, and Iruma dashes after them, her words coming fast and frantic, “b-but I’m still your favorite, right? I-I can repair you and c-clean you! Kii—”

The doors swing shut, and Momota brushes his hands against each other. “Well that takes care of that. Kaede?”

Kaede’s still blinking after the trio. “Uh, right,” with a shake of her head, she shrugs her backpack off her shoulders, and hurriedly takes out the video player, hunching herself around it. “Look at this.”

She flicks it on, and the words “Harukawa Maki: Ulimate Assassin” appear anew. 

The video plays on dully over Momota breathing out, “Holy shit. That’s…”

Tenko is pale. “That isn’t true, is it? Because if that’s true…”

“Chabashira,” says Momota. “You actually picked a fight with a goddamn assassin.”

“T-Tenko knows that!” she shouts. “Te-Tenko—” she whips her head to meet Kaede’s eyes. “Akamatsu-san, is this why you were worried about Tenko this morning?”

She nods. “Yes, and,” she shoves the still playing video back in her backpack. “It’s also kind of the reason why I pushed showing all the videos so hard. We’re… in a lot of danger the longer this goes unchecked.”

“Wait,” says Momota. “Won’t Harukawa be super pissed off if you just fucking expose her like that?”

“Yeah, but,” says Kaede. “I’d rather have her be mad at me than have her try and kill me. Especially since it’s my fault she might go after Chabashira-san, too.”

Momota frowns. “Well, we don’t know that she’s going to fucking go after anyone at all.”

Tenko’s exasperated. “Tenko already sensed a murderous intent from Harukawa-san yesterday when she used her Neo-Aikido… and Tenko probably made her really angry.” She turns back to Kaede. “Tenko thinks the two of us should stick together until the video showing… and far away from Harukawa-san’s lab.”

Momota slaps a hand to his forehead. “That’s why she’s not letting anyone into her lab. Fuck, it all makes sense now, here,” he raises both hands. “I’m gonna go talk to her—”

“You—what!? No!” shouts Kaede. “You’re actually going to willingly be alone with the Ultimate Assassin? An Ultimate Assassin who probably isn’t the biggest fan of you? Near her whatever that’s probably full of weapons?”

He doesn’t stop walking backwards towards the doors. “She doesn’t know I know, and besides,” he shrugs. “Hoshi’s killed people before, but he feels bad about it—maybe she’s the same way.” 

“Tenko thinks that is an awfully big risk to take,” she says. 

“Hey,” he pushes his back against the doors. “Like Kaede said, this can’t go unchecked. Someone has to do something, and of the three of us, I’m the one she’s the most likely to talk to, right?”

Kaede sighs and bites back the deep worry gnawing at her. “There’s no talking you out of this, is there?”

“Nope,” he grins. 

Kaede sighs again. “Please just be careful.”

Tenko places her hands on her hip. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

His grin grows wider. “I can promise one of those things. I’ll see you guys later for training, alright? Maybe I’ll even bring Harukawa with me.”

He disappears through the doors, and Tenko just shakes her head. “Boys always make reckless decisions.”

Kaede offers her a small smile. “Maybe not all boys, but definitely Kaito, at the very least.” She crosses her arms. “I guess the two of us have some free time, since I, uh, don’t really want to check up on Iruma-san right now.”

Tenko claps her hands. “Oh, does that mean Akamatsu-san has time for Tenko to show her something?” 

“Yeah, I think so,” she says. “What is it?”

Tenko takes one of Kaede’s hands in hers. “It’s a surprise. A magic surprise.”

-

Tenko is audibly disappointed when they burst into Yumeno’s lab to discover it empty. With Kaede and her sore limbs dragging behind Tenko, the two end up parading around the school hand in hand until Tenko spots Yumeno sitting at the table under the arbor, her head pillowed in her arms. Kaede nearly trips over her feet to match pace with Tenko’s sudden sprint at seeing the sleeping girl. 

Tenko waves her hand not currently gripping Kaede’s, and shouts “Yumeno-san!”

Yumeno lifts her head from her arms in a daze, her hat flopping forward on her head when she looks up at the two of them suddenly standing over her. Tenko grins down, while Kaede reaches a hand out to steady herself on one of the arbor’s pillars. Yumeno responds to Tenko’s enthusiasm with a resounding “Huh? Is it time for dinner already?”

“No,” Tenkos says, smiling broadly. “It is still light out, Yumeno-san.” 

“Oh,” she looks around slowly at the shining blue sky. “I guess it is.”

Kaede clears her throat. “So, Chabashira-san, you said you wanted to show Yumeno-san something?” 

“That’s right!” she exclaims. “Yumeno-san, earlier Tenko found a deck of cards in your lab and was wondering if you could show her and Akamatsu-san some magic.”

Yumeno’s already saying “It’s not tricks, it’s ma—oh.” She straightens, a blank expression sliding on to her face.

“Akamatsu-san,” says Tenko. “You might not be able to tell, but this is Yumeno-san’s happy face.” Tenko presses two fingers together. “You are happy that Tenko and Akamatsu-san are visiting you, right Yumeno-san?”

“I’m happy…” she drawls, “about magic.” Yumeno extends one small hand towards Tenko. “You said you had a deck of cards. I guess I can show you a spell or two.”

Kaede can’t help but smile as Tenko practically squeaks in delight about handing the present over. Then she finds herself raising a hand to her mouth to hide the laughter when Tenko jumps from foot to foot in excitement when Yumeno begins to shuffle the cards back and forth in quick, practiced motions. 

Yumeno turns to Kaede. “Pick a card.” 

Tenko eagerly looks over her shoulder when she does, and loudly whispers. “Tenko is so excited for this. Yumeno-san’s magic is so amazing.”

The cards fly back and forth in front of Yumeno’s face, before she eventually calls out the exact card in Kaede’s hands. Tenko doesn’t even need to ask for an encore when Yumeno reshuffles and extends the deck towards her this time.

She gets it right again, and Tenko applauds her anew. In the next flurry of cards, Kaede spies a slight blush sprawling across Yumeno’s tired face. The admittedly impressive display goes on far longer than Kaede imagined it would, losing track of time somewhere between watching Yumeno’s increasingly outrageous slights of hand and Tenko’s displays of wide-eyed joy. The only sounds that echo through the empty garden are ones of a rare, bright happiness. 

When a slightly haggard Tojo eventually comes to fetch them for dinner, Yumeno begins to pout. Tenko gasps. “Ah, did Yumeno-san miss her afternoon nap? Tenko is sorry for distracting you!”

“No,” Yumeno says. “Well, that too, but I just thought of a few more spells to do.” She frowns. “I guess I was running out of MP anyway, though…”

“Ah, if that’s the case,” says Tenko. “Maybe you can show Tenko later. Or just talk about them over dinner.” Her smile turns a shade gentler. “Or talk about anything. If Yumeno-san has anything she wants to say, then Tenko is always happy to listen.”

Yumeno hops to her feet. “Dunno if I have anything to say,” she mumbles. “Thinking about things to say takes a lot of energy.”

“It does,” Tenko agrees easily. “But doing so can set you on the road to friendship.” She looks to Kaede. “That’s why Akamatsu-san and Tenko are such good friends now.”

“Yeah,” Yumeno fiddles with her hat. “You guys are pretty close, huh? I think,” she pulls the hat down further. “I’m gonna go to dinner… and maybe nap there... since you distracted me...”

She shuffles away too quickly, and Tenko calls out, “Y-Yumeno-san! We’re all going to the same place!”

Kaede pats her shoulder when she slumps them in defeat at the small girl’s hasty retreat. “Did Tenko say something wrong?” she asks.

“I think,” Kaede says, choosing her words carefully. “Yumeno-san is a little confused, but,” she gives her a reassuring smile. “I’m sure she’ll come around. In fact,” she pumps her fists. “I think everything will work out. As long as the three of us work together, nothing will go wrong.”

Tenko raises her eyebrows. “Three of us?”

“I’m including Kaito,” Kaede says, suddenly feeling a little silly. “Even though he’s not here.”

“Oh,” she frowns. “Do you think he said something stupid, and Harukawa-san killed him?”

She sighs. “I sure hope not.”

-

Though Tenko’s spirits fall at seeing Yumeno almost completely absorbed in eating her dinner so at to not spare her a second look, Kaede finds herself greeted by relief at dinner to see Momota in one loud, brash piece. Maki does not make an appearance at dinner, and Momota makes a point to ask Tojo to give him a plate to bring down to her. 

On his way out of the room, he tells Kaede he’ll meet her at training right after and claps her on the back so hard that she briefly worries the video player inside her backpack will break. When she returns to her room to prepare for the coming exhaustion, she turns it over in her hands to find it as indestructible as the Monopad that Momota once slammed against the tile floor of the cafeteria with all his strength. Part of her finds it amusing just how Momota-proof everything in the school is. Part of her also absently wishes that he'll succeed one day in his quest to tear the building apart with his bare hands.

Shinguji’s standing by the tall glass doors again, staring out at the yard. Kaede pauses briefly next to him and sees Momota’s form already silhouetted against the moon.

“Out for another night of training, Akamatsu-san?” he asks. “Or are you going to visit Iruma-san?”

“Training,” she answers. “Did Iruma-san leave?”

He places one bandaged hand on his masked face. “She left earlier. I believe to her lab, though she did not stop to make conversation with me, like you did Akamatsu-san.”

“Ah, well,” Kaede rubs the back of her head. “She might have had a rough day, but, uh…” she absently straightens Saihara’s hat. “Are you observing our training again tonight, Shinguji-kun?” she asks. 

“If you still do not mind,” he answers evenly. “I found it to be quite intriguing last time.”

She laughs. “Well, I’m glad you like it. You’re always invited to join, you know.”

He nods. “Thank you again for your invitation, Akamatsu-san, though I am afraid I must still decline.” 

Kaede pushes the door open and the cooled night air swirls in fast to press against her face. “Alright. One day though,” she says. She raises her arms triumphantly at her sides. “And when that day comes, you’ll get muscles as big as Gonta-kun.”

“Kukuku,” he laughs. “I look forward to it, Akamatsu-san.”

Outside under the starlit sky, Kaede finds Momota sitting cross legged on the grass, just staring straight up. She folds her legs underneath her and sits next to him without a word. The night shines bright through the bars of the cage, and it looks too breathtaking to be the view from a prison window. Kaede shrugs her backpack off and lays it next to her so she can stretch out on her back.

Momota finally turns to her, grinning at the motion. “You love space, too?”

“I love stars,” she says. “There’s a reason there’re so many pieces of music devoted to the night sky, you know.” She stretches both her hands up. “I mean, it’s so pretty and it can make you feel like everything’s connected and like you’re all alone at the same time. I always thought that was kind of amazing.”

“Me, too,” he nods. “Want me to take you to space with me when we get out of here?” 

Kaede laughs. “Take everyone. Think there’s enough room on the rocket for fourteen?” 

“There’s enough for thirteen,” he says. “We can leave Ouma behind.”

She laughs again when she hears rushed footsteps trampling through the dew covered grass. She turns her head “Chabashira-san?”

“We could leave her, too, if you want,” Momota says.

Kaede swats his arm when she sits up. She’s about to report the joke to Tenko when she catches sight of the other girl’s expression. All the humor leaves her voice when she catches sight of a familiar video player gripped in the other girl’s hands. “Chabashira-san?” she asks, rising to her feet. “Is something wrong? Why are you carrying that around?”

Momota stands, too, when Tenko finally approaches, nervously shifting from foot to foot. “Um—nothing’s wrong,” she says, the lie transparent on her lips. “But Tenko decided to watch her video even though it was meant for a terrible boy, and she thinks that we shouldn’t show it at the screening tomorrow.” 

“Is it that bad?” asks Momota, absently reaching for it. Tenko slaps his hand away almost as distractedly. 

Kaede frowns. “Well, if it _is_ really bad, then that’s all the more reason to show it, right? I mean, it’s like with Harukawa-san. If we show it, everyone will know who to look out for, and that person will be discouraged from trying anything.”

“Tenko knows that!” she says quickly. “The problem isn’t… here.” She shoves the player forward. “Watch.”

Momota and Kaede exchange a look. He shrugs at her, and turns to watch Tenko press play on the video. 

A screen appears that says: Hoshi Ryoma: Ultimate Tennis Player. Then the screen fades to nothing, and Kaede looks up at Tenko, ready to ask what the problem is when the other girl abruptly shushes her. Text achingly crawls across the bottom of the screen, and Monokuma’s voice echoes joyously that he couldn’t find a single person in the outside world who cared about Hoshi Ryoma. He echoes that the tennis play really and truly is all alone in the world, with no one to go back to. 

It ends almost as soon as it started. Kaede breathes out the only words that come to her, “Oh God… that’s…” she presses a hand to her forehead. “Hoshi-kun… he wanted to see this so badly and…” 

“Fuck that bear,” Momota spits.

“Tenko agrees,” she says. “And Tenko thought about it and really thinks we should not let Hoshi-san see this.” 

Momota’s shaking his head. “This is so fucking low, even for Monokuma.” He runs a hand through his hair. “The hell are we supposed to do with this fucking thing?”

“Unfortunately, just breaking it isn’t an option,” says Kaede. “And even if we did… when we show the videos tomorrow, Hoshi-kun isn’t just going to accept that his got broken or lost.”

“So what’s the plan then?” asks Momota. “We can’t just fucking do nothing.”

“Tenko thought maybe she could ask Monokuma to make Hoshi-san a new video,” she offers, half-heartedly. “But mostly because Tenko couldn’t think of anything else.”

Kaede sighs. “We’re going to have to postpone the screening. It’s the only thing we can do.”

Tenko whips towards her. “But what about Harukawa-san’s video? Or exposing any secrets the awful boys might be hiding?”

For some reason, Momota doesn’t bite back at her comment, leaving Kaede to freely say, “I know that, but,” she shakes her head. “I don’t think I could live with myself if we forced Hoshi-kun to watch this and he turned around and did something reckless.” The blood on her hands flickers before her eyes. “I… won’t allow myself to be responsible for any more deaths.”

“Akamatsu-san…” says Tenko. 

“Fine then,” says Momota, slamming his fists together. “Then it’s decided. We’re not gonna give up on the screening, but,” he looks to Kaede for confirmation, “it’s gonna be held off till we think of something.”

“Tenko agrees,” says Tenko. She frowns down at the video player in her hands. “But what does Tenko do with this in the meantime?”

Kaede bends down to pluck her backpack off the ground. “I can carry it around. I’ve been keeping Harukawa-san’s with me, so I don’t mind holding onto an extra one.”

“Oh,” says Momota. “Do you want mine, too? I mean,” he rubs the back of his head. “It’s not as dramatic as Hoshi or Harukawa’s, but,” he pulls a face, “it’s weird.”

“What do you mean?” Kaede raises her eyebrows at him.

“Uh, just let me get it,” he says, already moving to race off towards the dorms. “I’ll be right back!”

Kaede jokingly calls out, “Say ‘hi’ to Shinguji-kun on your way!”

He shouts back, “Not going to fucking do that!”

Kaede shakes her head at him, and turns to the still fidgeting Tenko. “You alright, Chabashira-san?”

“Tenko’s fine,” she says. “Just… worried. About everyone—even the boys. Well,” she pauses, sorting out her thoughts, “mostly Hoshi-san and Momota-san.”

“That’s understandable,” says Kaede. “You’re a very empathetic person, ah,” she gives her a shy smile, “Tenko-san.”

“That is very kind of you to say—ah!” Tenko suddenly shouts, her entire face burning red. “A-Akamatsu-san! You—do you want to call Tenko by her first name?”

She laughs and fiddles with the brim of her hat. “Ah, if you’re okay with it, and,” she feels her own face begin to warm. “You can call me ‘Kaede’ if you want.”

Tenko presses her hands to her face. “This is too much for Tenko! Everything’s happening so fast… but,” she smiles nervously. “Tenko… would be okay with it if Aka-Kaede-san is.”

“I would… Tenko-san,” and the smile she shares with Tenko sings through the still night air.

“Oh, shit are we calling Chabashira by her first name?” calls out Momota’s voice, the boy in question quickly approaching, armed with his video player in one hand.

Kaede shakes her head as the moment shatters, and Tenko spins on her heel. “An awful boy like you is not allowed!” she says. “This is between Tenko and Akama—Kaede-san.”

He’s all smiles when he hands Kaede his video and says, “Yeah, whatever you say, Chabashira.” He crosses his arms when Kaede takes it. “Give me time—I’m gonna think up a good nickname for you.”

“You will do no such thing!” she shouts. 

The two begin to argue, and under the ruckus of their bickering, Kaede turns on the video player to see Shinguji’s motive play out before her. Her heartstrings pull slightly for his supposedly ailing sister--though the video is noticeably vague about the girl's condition--before her face scrunches in confusion at the strange wording at the end, discussing some goal he needs to complete in the outside world for his poor sibling. 

Kaede merely shrugs at it when she shoves the finishing video in her backpack along with Hoshi’s and Maki’s. Tenko and Momota are still squabbling about something, and the stars are still shining brightly overhead. And Kaede thinks about how careful she’ll need to be to keep all thirteen of her friends still breathing.

-

At breakfast the next morning, everyone gathers, and Kaede embraces the host of hostile and confused stares that greet her when she slams both hands on the table and announces the video screening is being postponed. Her heart aches when Hoshi is the first to protest. 

“Akamatsu,” he says. “Do you have an actual reason for this, or is someone threatening you?”

“N-no one is threatening me!” she says immediately. “And we’re stilling going to watch them all… just not today.”

Iruma throws her hands up in the air. “Does that mean you made me waste all of my precious fucking time yesterday? I fucking slaved over that filthy projector, you blimp-titted—”

“I am also confused, Akamatsu-san,” says Tojo. “You seemed very set on it yesterday. I am deeply curious about your sudden change of heart, if it is not too bold of me to ask.”

“She just fucking changed her mind, okay?” shouts Momota over the growing roar. “Leaders change their minds all the time when shit comes up.”

Ouma’s face is completely blank. “And what came up?”

“Ah,” Kaede freezes. “Something…” she looks to Momota for an answer. He shrugs and gestures at Tenko. She turns to Tenko, who simply looks indignant about Momota passing the burden of thinking of an answer to her. “Important?” Kaede tries.

“Ooh,” says Angie. “What is it? What is it? God says Kaede should share with everyone!”

Hoshi says, “Don’t really know what God says, but I’d like to hear it, too.” The look on his face is one of burnt betrayal. Kaede barely resists flinching under his stare. “Akamatsu?”

Kaede swallows and chooses the words, “It’s going to happen. I promise. I just need more time.”

“More time for what?” asks Ouma. “The more time that goes by, the more time a murderer has to plan,” he chirps.

Kiibo jumps to his feet and points a finger at him. “Ouma-kun! Do not say such horrible things!”

“Huh?” he asks. “Why not? I thought you guys like it when I tell the truth? Oh, Kiiboy, do you want me to lie to you?”

“Of course not!” he shouts. 

“Aw, how about a gentle little lie?” Ouma says. 

“Not even one of those!” Kiibo says sharply. 

Ouma gives the robot a hard look, before a cruel smile slides over his darkening features. “If that’s what you want.” He turns to the group as a whole. Kaede finds herself taking a step backwards at the sight of his near demonic expression. “Akamatsu-chan and Kiiboy are going to get someone killed. The more they try and make us cooperate with each other, the more we’re going to suffer.”

“Th-the hell are you talking about?” says Momota. 

“I’m talking about this game we’re playing,” he says. “This game with rules and winners and losers,” and he gives Kaede an odd look, “and cheaters. And I’ve decided to play the game the right way.”

Kaede points a finger at him. “Ouma-kun, what are you planning?”

He giggles, childish energy suddenly swarming around him again, the earlier darkness evaporating as quickly as it had come. “Ah, nothing, nothing. I just thought of something really fun.” Then he spins on his heel and begins to skip towards the doors, calling behind him, “Tojo-chan, do my laundry later! I’m too busy today!”

He disappears, and Tenko grumbles, “What an awful boy, saying those things and then running off after demanding something of Tojo-san.”

“It’s quite alright,” says Tojo calmly. “Though I question his earlier comments, I do not mind completing tasks for others.”

“Ah, is that true?” asks Gonta suddenly. “Because if it’s not too much trouble, Gonta would be very happy if Tojo-san could bring him a snack in his lab later.”

Instead of leaping up from the table dramatically, Iruma decides to stand perched on top of her chair, precariously wobbling back and forth. “Yeah! Listen up, you frigid prude! Make me fucking lunch right now!”

Tenko scoffs. “Gonta-san! Iruma-san! Do not speak to Tojo-san that way!”

“Uh, one of those was a lot worse than the other,” says Shirogane. “But, um,” she pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. “Tojo-san, I would really appreciate it if you could also do a little laundry for me.”

“Of course,” says Tojo solemnly. “Are there any other tasks I should attend to today?”

Kaede stares openmouthed alongside Tenko—who mumbles out a, “not you, too” when Yumeno makes a request—as her remaining classmates rattle off a list of chores and file out of the room without a second thought.

Hoshi pauses after his, and gives Kaede a long, exhausted look before turning to fiddle with the unlit cigarette between his fingers. Kaede stares after him, the sheer look of worry on her face causing Tenko to place a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Momota remains focused on Tojo and shakes his head. “Damn, Tojo. You really okay with doing all this shit?”

“It is really no trouble,” she says. “In fact, it is my preference to have too many tasks than too few.”

“But, Tojo-san, that isn’t fair to you,” say Kaede, finally tearing her gaze away from the spot where Hoshi stood. “Everyone shouldn’t be so dependent on you—you’re not our mom.”

“I know,” Tojo replies, smiling gently. “But I really do not mind. Knowing people depend on me is a motivation, not a burden.”

Kaede frowns. “If you’re sure.”

“I am,” she says. “Now, Akamatsu-san, would you like to stay for lunch? I believe Iruma-san, Shinguji-san, and Hoshi-san requested something.” She pauses. “And Kiibo-san will also likely be there.”

“Dude, Tojo, what is up with you two?” asks Momota.

Tojo shakes her head. “I’m afraid I could not tell you.”

“Tojo-san,” says Tenko. “Tenko understands that you do not mind doing chores, but if anyone disrespects you, let Tenko know, and she will show them the power of her Neo-Aikido.”

“Thank you for the offer, Chabashira-san,” she says politely. “But if you’ll excuse me, I’m afraid I have many tasks to attend to today.”

Kaede nods. “Right, we’ll get out of your hair then. Actually,” she lifts her arms to the ceiling, stretching out her back, “I think I’m going to take a nap for a while.”

“Training wearing you out already, Kaede?” Momota grins. “You’re going to have to get tougher than that.”

“I am tough,” she says, lightly punching his shoulder. “This morning was just... draining. In a lot of ways.”

Tenko gasps and punches Momota’s other shoulder not as lightly. “Momota-san, apologize to Kaede-san!”

“Why?” he says rubbing his arm. “She’s not mad at me, right Kaede?”

“Momota-san was being rude,” counters Tenko. “Right, Kaede-san?”

“I think,” says Kaede. “That I’m going to go to my room.”

-

The rest she gets is not nearly as restorative as she would have hoped and is abruptly interrupted an hour later by a series of thunderous knocks on her door. Rubbing her still sleep stained eyes, Kaede slings her backpack over her shoulders, and places Saihara’s hat on her head before pushing her door open to see Momota’s frantic face. 

She blinks. “Kaito—”

He grabs both her shoulders, and says with a worrying seriousness, “Kaede, you need to run.” 

“Huh?”

Momota nervously glances over his shoulder before, putting his face too close to hers to say, “There’s a monster. It—it’s probably too late for the others, but we still have a chance.”

“K-Kaito,” Kaede says. “What are you talking about?” 

“I’m talking about—oh fuck!” he suddenly throws himself against the wall. “There he is!” he loudly whispers.

Kaede glances in the direction of Momota’s frightened eyes to see Gonta standing strong in the hall, practically radiating with a strange, overwhelmingly powerful energy. 

“Gonta-kun…” she breathes, squinting her eyes to better take in the sight before her. She cuts her observations short when she hears the soft sounds of Momota’s slippers backing away from her door. Kaede whips her head to him. “Where are you going?” 

“I’m getting out of here,” he whisper-shouts back. “And you should, too.”

Kaede hurries out of her room, clicking her door shut and pressing herself against the outside wall next to him. “Oh, you are not leaving me here, Momota Kaito.” She gestures forward. “Now, move! If we just stay here he’s going to catch us… for whatever is happening right now.” She frowns. “What’s happening right now?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Momota says. “But I did just think of the best hiding spot. C’mon.”

They creep through the halls and across the open yard for entirely too long in Kaede’s opinion before she has to cover her mouth with a hand to prevent the involuntary squawk that leaves her at seeing Momota begin to press open the door to the girls’ bathroom. “What are you doing?” 

“This is our hiding spot!” he says. “Gonta the gentlemen would never think of fucking coming in here.”

She points a finger at him. “You should never think of coming in here!”

“It’s a good idea, okay?” Momota says sharply, shoving the door open with his shoulder. "Now are you coming or what?" 

Kaede rolls her eyes at the sheer absurdity of the situation. She groans, “Are we seriously doing this?”

“Either we hide in here or we get caught,” he says. “It’s your choice.”

Kaede bites her lip and pauses far too long. 

“Kaede!”

“I’m thinking, okay!” she says. “Look, maybe we can just talk to—” The sound of panicked footsteps pounding nearby cause both of them to jump. Kaede gestures wildly to the door. “Why are you standing around? In!”

Kaede sees the figure of someone blond and pink and loud enough to get them all caught appear in the corner of her vision before she shoves herself inside the girls' bathroom behind Momota. She holds a finger to her lips to quiet him, intending to wait for the sound of footsteps to pass. Yet the click-clack of platform boots only screeches stronger and stronger until the door to the bathroom flings open before their slightly crouched forms, a profusely sweaty Iruma heaving and framed like a photo in the doorway.

She slams the door closed behind her, and with wide eyes, immediately thrusts a trembling finger in Momota’s face. “The fuck do you think you’re doing in here, you perverted asswipe!?” 

“Hiding from fucking Gonta!” he yells back. “The fuck are you doing here!”

“Uh, running from monster dick, duh!” she shouts. "Get out of my genius hiding spot!" 

"It's my genius hiding spot!" Momota answers. "I thought of it first!

Kaede jumps between them, hands held in front of her in a desperate attempt to quiet the incoming screaming match threatening to balance around the walls and straight out the doors into Gonta's ears. “Iruma-san, is Gonta-kun behind you? Did he chase you this way?”

“Yeah!” Iruma says. “He was up in my fucking tits just a second ago.”

Kaede slaps a hand to her forehead. “Did you just lead him right to us?”

“Uh,” Iruma pauses, the consequences of her actions suddenly hitting her. “I—”

The sound of footsteps the size of mountains slam against the floor outside the door. Iruma shrieks, “I-I am not getting caught!” and shoves past Momota and Kaede, deeper into the room. “Take them instead!”

“Why you—”

“No one’s getting caught!” says Kaede. “We can all hide together.”

“Ooh, into one of the stalls, right Bakamatsu?” Iruma says, already swinging one of the doors open with the most bizarre, off-putting eagerness Kaede has ever seen. 

Even in their panic with the sound of the footsteps pacing down the hall like a rolling boulder, both Momota and Kaede stop to just stare at her. Kaede says slowly, “into the supply closet.” 

“Oh, right!” she shouts, quickly changing course, and throwing that door open. “Geniuses first!” 

Kaede rolls her eyes but hurries after her. Momota's on her heels, and yells out as Iruma tries to shut the door on them, “Hey!”

The sound of the pacing footsteps suddenly comes to a complete halt at Momota’s shout. Iruma and Momota both freeze in their struggle at the door, and Kaede takes the opportunity to push past them into the supply closet. Gonta’s voice echoes in sheer horror from outside the door, “Momota-kun! Are you in the girls’ bathroom?”

Iruma nearly shoves Kaede off her feet, in her efforts to get further into the cramped supply closet. Kaede hears the door to the girls' bathroom crash open, and Momota lunges towards them, sending Kaede stumbling backwards and into Iruma against the far wall. Iruma’s cursing at her, and she suddenly slips off her feet and onto the ground as the wall she was relying on to catch her is suddenly much further away than she thought.

Kaede looks up from under the brim of Saihara’s hat to see Momota’s panicked face turned towards the exit as a large hand picks his struggling form up by the back of both of his jackets. 

Gonta’s scandalized voice is the calmest of the four of them, scolding Momota for such ungentlemanly behavior over the other boy’s shouts. Kaede doesn’t even trust herself to breathe until she hears the door click closed behind them. 

She sighs when the steps finally fade away, and shakes her head. “I’m gonna have to make it up to Kaito later,” she mumbles to herself. Kaede glances up towards Iruma on the floor next to her. “Iruma-san—” then she registers that Iruma isn't looking at her, but is on her knees and gaping in shock at the wall behind them. 

Then Kaede registers that the wall behind her isn’t there anymore, and a long hallway stretches out before them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're getting antsy for the body discovery, trust me, I am too. Although thinking about my impatience makes me think about the ending of V3 a lot, haha. Also expect a slightly more edited version (mostly typos and such) tomorrow morning since I'm afraid I must admit I didn't spend quite as much time going over this as I would have wanted.


	5. The First Body Has Been Discovered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for chapters 2 and 6.

Their steps walking down the strange hallway create a deeply discomforting echo. Iruma’s shoulders are tightly bunched up around her, and she looks like a scared rabbit ready to bolt and leave Kaede for dead the second anything so much as threatens to appear. 

Her sweaty hands are locked in a death grip around one of Kaede’s arms, reducing their pace to an awkward shuffle. Kaede sighs and takes too loud a step forward as they turn one of the corridor’s twisting corners. Iruma yelps. “W-w-what the fuck was that?”

“Just me,” says Kaede. She risks taking her eyes off the strange series of pipes that stretch overhead and glances back to the quivering Iruma. Her voice is as comforting as she can make it when she says, “I don’t think there’s anyone down here besides us.”

“Fucking bullshit!” whisper shouts Iruma, panicked eyes darting around. “The motherfucking, cut-your-dick-off-and-shove-it-back-down-your-throat-mastermind is down here! A-and they’re gonna show up any minute and rip our tits off and eat them!”

Kaede raises her eyebrows at the choice of words. “I… don’t think that’s going to happen,” she turns back to the tunnel. “Mostly because I doubt the mastermind is a cannibal, but also…” she bites her lip. “I don’t think the mastermind is here right now.”

Iruma lets out a low pitched whine as Kaede forces them forward. “And just tell me what kind of shitty logic you’re basing that on, Bakamatsu. We’re in their fucking secret lair, fucking waltzing up to the front door, like a fucking door-to-door meat market,” she says, each curse punctuated with squeeze of Kaede’s arm. “Kiibo didn’t sacrifice himself for you to push me tits first into death’s asshole.” 

“Iruma-san,” says Kaede. “We’re going to have a talk about your speech patterns later.” She frowns. “Also what do you mean ‘Kiibo sacrificed himself?’”

“When fucking big dick started his rampage,” she waves one her hands. “Me and Kiibs were having a fucking romantic as shit lunch—even if the three fucking perverted stooges were hanging around—and when big dick showed up, Kiibs sacrificed himself so my genius could live on.”

“I seriously doubt anyone Gonta-kun caught is hurt,” Kaede says shaking her head. “I wish I knew what was even going on with that.”

“No shit,” says Iruma. She jerks her chin forward. “Wish I knew what the fuck was going on here, too.” She grumbles, “wish I knew when the mastermind is gonna come shove a knife up our asses.”

Kaede sighs. “Iruma-san, trust me. I have good reason to think we’re alone.”

At the end of a sudden incline, Kaede finds herself faltering at the prospect of opening the strange metal door that greets her. Iruma audibly gulps. “Wanna explain what that fucking reason is?”

Her words are for Iruma as much as they are for her own reassurance. Kaede takes a deep breath and firmly sets her hat forward on her head with her hand Iruma’s not currently holding hostage. “Right now everyone’s really distracted with Gonta-kun… which means the mastermind is also distracted, and the mastermind,” she says, “has to be one of us—there wouldn’t be human sized secret passages like this if they weren’t.” 

“Think of that all by yourself, Bakamatsu?” Iruma grumbles without budging an inch from her hiding spot behind Kaede.

“No,” she clenches her jaw. “Saihara-kun did.” A fierce, suddenly awake determination surges through Kaede, and she reaches forward and begins to push the door open. “And it’s the mastermind’s fault he’s dead.” 

She shoves it wide open. 

The mastermind’s lair is empty and black and pink, and centered before them is one very strange object.

Iruma lets out a muffled yell at the sight before them. The giant Monokuma head in the glass tank they suddenly come face to face to lets out a slightly less muffled yell. From behind Kaede, Iruma thrusts a finger at the strange robot and screams, “What the fucking hell is that thing!?”

At the same time, the head gasps, “What are you doing here!?” Its red eye blinks rapidly and, in its weird, echoing robotic voice it says, “You’re not supposed to be here yet!”

Kaede recovers from her openmouthed shock and takes a tentative step forward, Iruma scurrying to keep up with her human wall. “What are you, and,” she swallows. “What do you mean, ‘not supposed to be here yet?’”

“Who fucking cares about that?” asks Iruma. “We need to get the fuck out of here before that monster eats us!” Iruma squeaks as the full implications of her statement catch up with her. She shoves Kaede forward. “Eat her first!”

“Puhuhuh,” it tuts. “I can’t eat anything, even if wanted to. And trust me, if I could, I would gobble up naughty children who stick their noses where they don’t belong like you two.”

Iruma recoils at the words, arms flung up to protect her face. “Don’t eat us!”

“Iruma-san,” says Kaede. “Calm down. It just said it couldn’t.” She steels herself and chances a few more cautious steps until she centers herself in the middle of the strange room. 

Closer up, Kaede takes a hard look at the unmoving Monokuma head, spying the sea of bunched cables that pour from its form. The head does not respond. Iruma’s still cowering in the doorway. Kaede straightens her shoulders and stands taller. “And now that everyone’s done yelling,” she shoots an accusatory glance towards Iruma, “what are you? You’re… not a regular Monokuma, right?” 

The head pauses for too long, and Iruma makes her slow approach during the silence. The head has still yet to respond by the time she reaches Kaede's side. She opens her mouth, but Kaede silences her with a raised hand. With as much authority as she can muster, Kaede says, “I asked you a question. What are you?”

It stays quiet, then, “I suppose…” it muses. “I can tell you that now, even if it’s early.”

“Why do you keep saying that shit?” Iruma asks. “What’s early?”

The head almost seems to pout. “Everything’s early! My grand reveal wasn’t even set up right! There was supposed to be a dramatic curtain pullback like finding the wizard behind the scenes!” it huffs. “But you two came early and ruined everything!”

Kaede talks over the beginning of the next bewildered question Iruma’s readying. “But what do you mean ‘early?’” she asks. “This is the mastermind’s lair, right?”

Iruma turns to her. “Bakamatsu, what the fuck do those two things have to do with each other?” she tosses her hair over her shoulder. “I mean, yeah, I see the giant robot-bear head, too, but I think you’ve fucking lost it.”

“No, Iruma-san, think,” says Kaede. “This is the mastermind’s lair—this thing keeps saying we found it early,” she gestures to the head, “and that’s a really weird thing to say—”

Iruma’s face lights in realization. “Because that means we’re supposed to find it later! Holy fuck! B-but,” she jabs her finger at the Monokuma head, “but when are we supposed to find you?”

The Monokuma head makes a soft clicking noise. “You naughty sequence breakers are ruining everything.” Then very quietly, “if any of this makes it to air, I’ll be amazed.”

“What was that?” Kaede asks, straining her already excellent hearing to make out the robot’s bizarre mumbling. 

“I said,” it says, “you’re ruining everything! The reveal of the Mother Monokuma is supposed to be saved for later in the game.”

“‘Mother Monokuma?’” echoes Iruma. She snaps her fingers. “Oh, shit does that mean you, like, fucking push out Monokumas and shit?”

Kaede frowns. “Uh, I think Iruma-san’s asking if you make extra Monokumas?”

It laughs. “You got it! I birth each and every one of the Monokumas all at my master’s orders! But I only give birth for my dearest, darling-est master when they ask me to.”

“Your master… that’s the mastermind, right?” Kaede asks before frowning. “And why do you keep phrasing it that way…”

Iruma pushes past Kaede and begins looking over the bunches of wires sprouting from the head. “Fucking show me,” she says kneeling down to get a better view of a particular section of cables. “Birth a fucking Monokuma right now!”

“I-I can’t just do that!” It shouts, seemingly taken aback. “I can’t just squeeze one out for anyone!”

Kaede groans. “Please stop talking about it like that.”

“Oi, Bakamatsu,” says Iruma. “You try asking it—tell it to birth a Monokuma. I got a theory.”

She pulls a face. “This better be a really good theory.”

“Stop complaining, whale tits, and get on it,” she says. “Tell it to birth a Monokuma.”

Kaede rolls her eyes but tightly says, “Hey, Mother Monokuma, give b-birth to a Monokuma. Ugh,” she presses the heels of her hands to her eyes. “This is so weird.”

It gasps. “S-so many demands today! And none of them from my master!” 

Iruma shoots up from her crouched position. “Looks like you fucking passed the test, Bakamatsu,” she grins. “Neither of us are the mastermind.”

Kaede blinks. “Huh?”

The Mother Monokuma shrieks. “H-how can you be so certain of that all of a sudden?”

Iruma struts to the other side of the Mother Monokuma’s tank to inspect the wires protruding from that side. “Whether they want to or not, thinking A.I.’s and shit tend to give away all their cues if you ask ‘em.” She smirks and pats the tank with one cocky hand, “got a clue from the way Missy Monokuma, here, kept talking about its master giving it orders.” 

“I did no such thing,” it says. “I would never betray my master like that!”

“But you fucking did,” she cackles. “This big old furry baby factory is obviously voice activated as shit, else we wouldn’t be having this fucking conversation. Even you could figure that out, right Bakamatsu?” 

Kaede puts a hand to her chin. “That actually makes a lot of sense, but,” she shakes her head. “How does that translate to neither of us being the mastermind?”

She waves her arms. “You see a key-pad anywhere around this hellhole? Or anything else that you can put a command into?”

Kaede takes that moment to further inspect the room. The pink hearts glitter on the walls and the lounge like couches hold no secrets as far as Kaede can gleam from a quick once over. “No…” she says. “I don’t, and,” she presses her fist into her opposite palm, “that probably means there isn’t one since the mastermind wouldn’t need to hide anything in their own already hidden room, right?”

“You don’t need to think that hard about it,” Iruma places her hands on her hips. “All I’m saying is that voice activated shit is obviously voice activated. And,” she kicks the base of the Mother Monokuma’s podium. “Since this hunk of junk keeps repeating the phrase ‘birth a Monokuma’ as an order, my genius self put two and two together and decided that’s probably a command phrase that causes it to shit out a Monokuma when the mastermind says it.”

“Iruma-san!” Kaede gasps, clasping Iruma’s hands in her own. “You’re a genius!”

“A-ah,” she squeaks. “O-of course I am… s-so you should be fucking grateful…”

“I am!”

“E-except she’s wrong,” says the Mother Monokuma, somehow sweating bullets despite its robotic form. “Puhuhu, good try, but wrong, wrong, wrong-y wrong!”

Kaede raises her eyebrows. “I seriously doubt that.” Then, turning back to Iruma, “Iruma-san, can you check it out a little more? I’m going to look around and see if I can find anything else.”

“Got it,” she salutes before rubbing her hands together. “Ooh, which part of you am I gonna to get inside first?”

The Mother Monokuma stammers in protest at Iruma’s prodding as Kaede begins her search. 

Behind her, it calls out, “Wait! Nothing’s set up for the big reveal, yet!”

Kaede ignores it and begins scanning the room for the deliberate clues that have yet to be placed for the distant grand finale. Iruma fiddles with the wiring, and Kaede searches fruitlessly. 

-

Elsewhere, Gonta plops Momota down into his bright green research room after a far too long walk filled with far too many reprimands for his ungentlemanly behavior. Inside the room, an already captive Tenko catches the tail end of the last one and delivers a firm chop to the top of his head. 

“What the fuck, Chabashira?” Momota says, already abandoning his previous battle with Gonta to clutch at his injured head. “That fucking hurt!”

“You’re lucky Tenko is going easy on you right now!” she says sharply. “Once we get out of this situation, Tenko will give you a proper punishment.”

“I’ll fucking look forward to it,” he mutters under his breath. “Now anyone mind telling me what the fuck is going on?”

Gonta claps his hands. “Gonta has decided that to fight against everyone’s dislike of insects, he would hold an insect appreciation party! That way everyone can truly see how amazing they are!”

“Uh,” says Shirogane, holding her hands close to her chest. “What do you mean ‘everyone’s dislike of insects?’”

“Good question, Shirogane-san,” says Shinguji from the far corner. “I do not believe I have heard anyone offer a negative opinion on insects during my observations.”

“Ah?” says Gonta. “But that’s what Gonta was told! And Gonta wants to help show everyone the wonder of insects!” 

Momota snorts. “Something suspicious is going on here.”

“Tenko hates to agree,” she says, crossing her arms. “But if she had to guess which awful boy is behind this mess…”

On her cue, Ouma practically bounces through the door. “Oh, let’s see, how many did you get, Gonta?” 

“Of fucking course,” mutters Momota. 

Gonta taps a finger to his chin. “Gonta tried really hard, but he wasn’t able to get everyone to come… but this is enough to start the party, right?”

Ouma hums. “You did pretty good… Hoshi-chan was probably too fast, right? And Harukawa-chan wouldn’t leave her lab? I guess that can’t be helped, but Gonta,” he says. “What about Akamatsu-chan? I really think she should come to the party.”

“Hey!” shouts Momota. “Ouma—the fuck do you want with Kaede?”

His eyes slid to him. “Hmm? Did you say something?” 

“Oh, you little fucking brat—”

“Ouma-san, please,” says Tojo, stepping between them. “Everyone would like an explanation as to why we were all,” she pauses searching for the right word, “aggressively pursued by Gokuhara-san to come here.” 

“Ah, Tojo-chan,” says Ouma. “Weren’t you paying attention? Gonta’s holding a party so everyone can get over their hatred of disgusting insects and love them as much as Gonta and I do!”

Gonta smiles. “Ouma-kun told Gonta just how much he loves insects and that we should share that love with everyone else.”

“Gonta-kun,” says Kiibo, “do not listen to a word he says! You are being tricked!”

“What?” says Ouma. “Why would I trick Gonta? What a mean thing to accuse someone of…” he begins to sniffle. “Gonta! Kiiboy’s bullying me because he hates insects!”

“I-I am doing no such thing!” Kiibo shouts back.

“Alright, quit the crap,” says Momota jabbing a finger at Ouma’s skinny chest. “What are you planning?”

Tenko falls into a battle stance. “Tenko will give you five seconds to explain before she uses her Neo-Aikido.”

“Aww,” says Ouma, still on the verge of tears. “This is the worst. Everyone’s threatening me, and all I wanted to do was have Gonta show everyone how great revolting bugs are and then maybe have a little movie night.”

Angie coos, “Ooh, like Kaede’s movie night with the motive videos?”

“Yep,” he says. “I’m getting so tried of waiting, so I think we should do it early, which makes it a real shame that Akamatsu-chan isn’t here.”

Gonta deflates. “Gonta tried to get her to come, but she was in the girls’ bathroom with Iruma-san and Momota-kun… and Gonta didn’t want to invade their privacy…”

Shirogane blinks. “What was everyone doing in the girls’ bathroom?”

Angie jumps excitedly from foot to foot. “What was Kaito doing in the girls’ bathroom?”

Momota waves his hands dismissively as Tenko shoots him another glare. “Th-that’s not important!”

“That’s right!” agrees Ouma. “What’s important is that we officially start the insect appreciation party!” He turns to Gonta. “Since I already love bugs, it’s okay that I miss the beginning to go get everyone’s videos, but make sure no one who hates bugs leaves early, okay?” Gonta nods in confirmation, and Ouma claps his hands together. “Alrighty then! I’ll be right back! Have fun, everyone!”

Momota lunges towards the door as Ouma skitters out of the room. “Hey! You can’t just fucking—”

Gonta’s massive form stops him in his tracks, creating a wall of solid muscle between him and the exit. “Momota-kun, you can’t leave yet! Gonta hasn’t even started to show you the wonders of insects!”

Yumeno pulls her hat down over her eyes. “I have a bad feeling about this…”

“Don’t worry, Yumeno-san,” says Tenko. “Tenko will protect you, and—ahhhhh!” she cuts herself off with a scream as the first insect swarm begins to rise from the previously closed breeding boxes and fill the air.

Panic erupts through the room. Tenko physically picks up a protesting Yumeno while Momota shoves Kiibo forward in an attempt to buy more time for himself to get away. Tojo and Shinguji back themselves into a far corner with Shirogane scrambling after them. 

Angie stands in the center of the chaos and delightedly claps her hands. “Everything will be fine,” she announces. “God says that all we need to do is believe in him, and everything will take care of itself.”

Gonta nonchalantly pops open two more boxes and the swarm thickens. 

Angie’s next prayer falters over the increasingly harsh buzzing and hissing as she, too, begins to retreat to the far side of the room.

The appreciation party continues on. The nighttime announcement comes and goes. 

Tenko doesn’t think she’s ever appreciated insects less in her life. At a half-hour in, Angie had established a prayer circle that Shirogane was desperate enough to join. Yumeno wrenched herself out of Tenko’s protective grip to take a seat to listen to how Angie’s God would keep them safe through these trying times. 

At an hour in, Shinguji had seemed to tire of watching Tojo dutifully pick bugs out of Kiibo’s metalwork, and joined in, Angie greeting him with a joyful cheer, before having to cut herself off when a stray bug flew into her mouth. 

At two hours in, Tenko has not budged an inch from her protective guard over the prayer circle. Ouma has yet to return, and Gonta seems to pleased with himself to even begin to think there was a mistake in holding them all captive. 

“Hey, Chabashira,” Momota says, suddenly appearing behind her. “Listen up, I got a plan.”

“Do not sneak up on Tenko,” she snaps at him. “Also, Tenko isn’t about to listen to any bo—”

“Yes, yes, I’m a boy,” Momota says. “But I’m a boy with a plan.” She frowns but doesn’t argue. He goes on, “if the two of us work together, I think we can take him out.” He jerks his chin towards Gonta, standing guard at the door and smiling down at Angie’s payer circle. 

She furrows her brow. “But we both got caught earlier.”

“Well, yeah,” he says, exasperated. “But we were apart then. I say, if you distract him, I can jump on his back and—”

“Tenko does not want to be the distraction!”

“Then I’ll be the fucking distraction! It doesn’t matter!” he smacks a fist into his palm. “Or maybe we can flank him and both attack at once.”

Gonta turns his eyes on them, so Tenko lowers her voice to a whisper when she says, “That’s a completely different plan. Tenko isn’t sure about any of this.”

“Okay, maybe the plan’s less solid than I made it out to be, but,” Momota leans in closer. “Either we try and do something and free everyone, or we sit on our asses in here until fucking Ouma decides to come let us out.”

She sighs. “Alright, fine. Tenko sees your point.” She glances to the circle on the floor and then to Tojo and Kiibo sitting quietly in obvious discomfort in the corner. “Should we ask anyone else to help?”

“Uh,” he looks around. “Let’s try Tojo. Everyone else here is probably… pretty not good in a fight.”

She nods in assent and steps away from Yumeno’s side for the first time since entering the room. 

Tojo and Kiibo glance up when Tenko and Momota’s shadows loom over them. Tojo says, “Do you need anything? I’m afraid all of my daily chores are currently on hold.”

“You seriously still concerned about chores right now?” asks Momota. “‘Cause personally I’m thinking big guy over there is our biggest problem.”

“No,” says Kiibo. “Our biggest problem is Ouma-kun.” He shakes his head. “I do not understand why he would go to such lengths to do this. If he pushes watching the videos any further, I will be forced to use my secret ability.”

Tojo raises her eyebrows. “You have a secret ability, Kiibo-san?”

“I do,” he says. “However, I would prefer to save it for a dire circumstance as it is a large drain on my power supply.”

Momota slams his fists together. “Well hurry up and use it then!”

“I just said I want to save it for a dire circumstance,” Kiibo responds.

Tenko frowns. “Tenko thinks this situation is pretty dire.”

“See? Chabashira agrees,” says Momota. “Which means that it’s two against one. Tojo?”

She coughs into a gloved hand. “I also believe that taking drastic action may be the right call for our current situation.” Kiibo sends her a betrayed look. 

“Alright,” says Momota. “Between the three of us and with Kiibo’s secret awesome robot fighting power, there’s no way we can’t do this?”

“Ah, excuse my asking,” says Tojo. “But what exactly are we doing?”

And Tenko listens with growing skepticism as Momota concocts an entirely new plan on the spot. She shoots him a look containing as much of her apprehension as physically possible, and Momota gives her a cheery thumbs in response. Kiibo protests futilely that his secret ability is not what the others think it is, and Tojo listens politely, offering suggestions whenever too large a hole appears in Momota’s plan.

Tenko just sighs and spares one last wavering look at Yumeno before moving into position. She steels herself to trust Momota when Tojo pretends to accidentally upend one of the few previously closed insect boxes. 

Gonta moves over to help her, and Tenko makes a beeline for the door, her legs shooting her forward in a dead sprint. 

She darts around Gonta, and he reaches forward to stop her with a worried shout, one of his large hands threatening to pull her back into the room and into the deep pile of bugs Tojo created. Tenko feels the breeze from Gonta moving to catch her swish over the fabric of her shirt, and he jolts towards her, the words, “Chabashira-san! Wait—!” echoing through the room. 

Angie’s prayer circle is now on their feet watching, and Tenko barely dodges his next attempt to grab at her. Her hands find the doorknob, and she knows the time it takes to twist it open is enough for Gonta to pull her back into the room. The giant boy is about to do just that when Momota leaps on to his back, the sheer surprised momentum of which sends the two hurtling off course from Tenko’s escape route. 

She yanks the door open, and spares a glance over her shoulder to see Momota lasting far longer than she assumed he would on the bull ride that is hanging on to Gonta’s shoulder. Tojo circles the two in a last ditch attempt to catch him should he lose the current battle, while Kiibo awkwardly dances around the pair. 

Momota spies her pausing and takes a break from shouting for Kiibo to use his awesome robot skill to yell, “Chabashira! Run! Get help!” Then, “I know you can do it!”

And Tenko sprints down the hall. 

Her legs move her forward, but her eyes linger too long on the sight of Momota finally being tossed to the ground. Tenko whips her head around to stare forward and plows straight into Ouma at the top of the stairs. 

The video players piled high in his arms go flying, and he lets out a strangled yelp as one of his wind-milling arms barely catches on to the banister to stop him from tumbling down the staircase. Tenko reels backwards, barely managing to grab on to his other arm in her own fall. 

She yanks him forward, and Ouma collapses into a heavily breathing heap next to her. “Geeze…” he wheezes out, slowly collecting himself. “Chabashira-san… I said… I would be right… back… don’t have to… push me down the stairs.”

Footsteps pound behind them, stopping any remark Tenko could make before it leaves her mouth. Gonta’s leading the pack and issues a gasp in horror at the sight before them. “Chabashira-san, Ouma-kun! Are you okay? You left the party in such a rush!”

“T-Tenko is fine,” she says pushing herself up on to unsteady feet. “Tenko…” she catches the sight of Momota leaning against Tojo with one arm wrapped around her shoulders for support near the back of the group. “Momota-san!” 

She pushes past the others, “You’re injured! Tenko knew your plan was stupid!”

Momota gives a weak laugh. “No, it was a great plan, and I’m totally fine,” he says. “Takes more than… being thrown against a fucking wall to stop the great Momota Kaito.”

Tojo shifts slightly under his weight, and Momota winces. She says, “I believe his only injury is one of his legs. Everything else should be fine,” she nods her chin towards Gonta. “Gokuhara-san agreed to let us leave so I could attend to it as soon as possible.” 

Gonta wilts at the sound of his name. “Gonta is very sorry. He never wanted to hurt anybody…”

“Hey, man,” says Momota as he and Tojo hobble past. “I said I’m fine—don’t beat yourself up over nothing, okay?”

“Y-yeah,” says Shirogane. “And it wasn’t your fault, Gonta-kun.”

“Oh yeah?” asks Angie. “But Angie saw Gonta toss him!” she waves her hands in the air. “Haha! Kaito went flying like a shooting star! Woosh!” 

Gonta flinches.

“I-I mean,” Shirogane corrects. “That we all know whose fault this entire thing was to begin with. Isn’t that right, Ou—huh? Where did he go?”

Tenko spins on her heel to see the pile of video players skill haphazardly scattered around the floor above the stairs and no Ouma in sight. 

“Oh my,” says Shinguji. “Sneaking away right in front of an entire group of people—it would seem our Ouma-kun is quite the master of stealth.”

“Huh,” yawns Yumeno. “Guess he got away.”

“Not if Tenko can help it,” she says. Glancing backwards one last time, she says, “Tojo-san, take care of Momota-san. Tenko is going after him.”

“Understood,” she nods.

“I told you I’m not fucking hurt!” he calls after her.

Tenko takes the stairs two at a time. “Stop complaining, and accept Tenko’s sympathy!” 

She dashes off, and Momota turns to give the chuckling Tojo a puzzled look. “Please excuse me,” she says. “I’m just a bit surprised to hear Chabashira-san saying such a thing to a boy.” 

Momota finds himself to dumbstruck to complain as he and Tojo make their much slower decent down the stairs. He hears Kiibo’s voice instructing the others to recollect their old motive videos, and Gonta issuing apologies left and right. 

-

It’s already dark out when Kaede and Iruma exit the bathroom. Walking back down the hall, Kaede says, “Iruma-san, I think this doesn’t really need to be said, but let’s keep this between us, okay?”

“You fucking know it,” she says. “I’m not about to paint a target the size of Gonta’s dick on my back.”

Kaede frowns. “And we are definitely having that talk about your word choice later.” She tilts her head from side to side to stretch out her neck. “Right now we should probably just act like normal. So I’m going to head to training—”

“And I’ll be in my lab trying to fucking forget that the mastermind’s a goddamn pervert lurking around the bathroom every time I wanna take a piss—”

And Ouma suddenly darts around the corner and sprints past them. 

Kaede blinks. Iruma blinks. 

Kaede says, “Well… something’s probably going on.”

The two girls poke their heads around the corner to see Tenko charging down the hall at high speed. Even at a distance, Kaede can see Tenko’s face noticeably brighten at seeing her. She sprints the last few feet to them, saying, “Kaede-san! Are you alright?”

“Uh, y-yeah,” she says. “I’m fine. Actually, I’m more worried about you. Do you know what was going on earlier?”

Tenko just shakes her head. “Tenko will explain tomorrow. Also,” her expression turns serious. “Did you see Ouma-san come this way? Tenko needs to punish him.”

Iruma snorts. “Never figured the little twink would be into that—”

“He just ran past us,” says Kaede. “Did he say something bad… er,” she frowns. “Did he say something worse than usual?”

Tenko narrows her eyes. “Tenko will also explain that later,” she steps past them, beginning her chase anew. “Also,” she calls back. “Training is cancelled tonight! Don’t listen to Momota-san if he says he can do it!”

“Uh, got it!” Kaede calls back. Then, quieter to Iruma, “just what on earth did we miss?”

Iruma cackles. “Dunno, but you and me are definitely going to the next orgy, Bakamatsu.” 

Kaede groans, but walks the rest of the way to the dorms in step with Iruma, the other girls proudly boasting about all the inventing she has planned for that night. They part at the intersecting paths in the garden, and Kaede finds herself almost alone when she pushes the glass door to the dorms open. 

Shinguji’s at his usual spot, and Kaede still jumps backwards with a startled yelp at his quiet hello interrupting her chain of thought. “My apologies, Akamatsu-san,” he says. “I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

“No, no,” says Kaede. “I’m just… distracted.”

“That is understandable,” he says. “Today has been… exhausting. I did, however, manage to learn quite a bit about Angie’s God, which was enlightening in its own way.”

“Huh,” says Kaede. “Well, I’m glad today wasn’t a total waste for everyone. I mean,” she lies, “I didn’t really do anything besides hide from Gonta-kun, and I’m still tired.”

“Hiding in silence is a very tiring activity,” Shinguji says. “I have much experience of simply waiting and observing, and it tends to wear on one’s nerves after a time.”

“Well,” she says. “You won’t have to do any more observations tonight—training’s cancelled apparently.”

He nods. “Yes, I assumed as much after seeing Momota-kun’s injury.”

Kaede pales. “What?” 

“I suspect he will be fine,” Shinguji continues. “I simply doubt he or Tojo-san will be doing much tonight other than ensuring he does not make it worse.”

She lets out a sigh of relief. “Tojo-san’s helping him… that’s good.” She shakes her head. “Someone’s going to have to tell me what happened today.”

Shinguji chuckles. “It is quite the story. I’d be happy to tell you, if you feel it is not too late tonight.”

Kaede nods in agreement, and Shinguji’s calm voice fills the room with a dramatic tale of bugs, over-the-top chase scenes, and more bugs.

-

Kaede spends her moments before sleep going over a mental check list of who could potentially be the mastermind. There are fourteen of them left. It’s not her. It’s not Iruma (unless Iruma lied to her about everything and is just tricking her and _killed Saihara right in front of her_ )

She shifts uneasily, thoughts and distrust rolling over each other in tangled waves. Part of her prays that it’s someone she doesn’t like—someone who’d be easy for her to accept as a traitor. Someone it’d be easier to know she tried to kill. The thought causes more guilt to bubble up in her stomach, but she pushes it back down.

The last thoughts before sleep are of how she crosses her fingers and prays it’s not Momota or Tenko. 

But, of course, she can’t be sure.

The thoughts push Kaede into early wakefulness, and she continues her routine of being one of the first morning risers. Tojo and Kiibo are already in the cafeteria, and each greets her with a slight degree of apprehension. 

Kiibo’s hesitation appears to be stemmed in his current attempt to complete the most mechanical, precise sweeping Kaede has ever seen, while Tojo hurries over to speak as privately as she can with Kiibo still in the room. 

“Akamatsu-san,” she says. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but yesterday, Momota-san—”

“He hurt himself?” Kaede replies. “Shinguji-kun filled me in on most of the details last night, but did anything new happen when you were taking of him?”

Tojo frowns. “No, though he was insistent on disobeying my orders to rest. I wanted to ask if you could perhaps try talking some sense into him.” 

Kaede sighs. “I can certainly try.”

“I suppose that’s the best we can hope for,” Tojo answers with an air of finality. “Now then, would you also like to help in my preparations before the others arrive?”

Kaede looks around the other girl to spy Kiibo awkwardly shoving the thick broom in his hands up against the wall. “Ah, Kiibo-kun’s taken quite an interest, hasn’t he?”

“Yes,” says Tojo. “I am not quite sure what to make of it, particularly since he needs to refrain from the dirtiest jobs or his fans will give out.” She shakes her head. “I keep warning him about that, but he insists.” 

“He can also probably hear us talking about him,” Kaede smiles. 

“He can,” Kiibo calls out. “And he would also appreciate a little help.”

The others slowly file in, and Kaede abandons assisting Kiibo with his extraneous cleaning when she sees Momota appear with a poorly disguised limp. 

“Hey, morning, Kaede,” he says, giving her a carefree smile. “Glad at least one of us got away yesterday. Man it was wild, but I really—why are you making that face?”

She frowns at him. “I know you went and got yourself hurt yesterday.”

“Oh, that,” he says. “But trust me—it’s not a big deal. And,” he holds up his hands defensively, “I’m planning on taking it easy today anyway. You’re like the third person to threaten to finish me off if I don’t.”

Kaede crosses her arms. “You better.”

“Yup,” he collapses into one of the metal chairs. “I think I think I’m gonna spend most of today outside of Harukawa’s lab. See if I can get her to talk to me.”

“You—” Kaede presses a hand to her forehead. “You’re so reckless.” She sighs. “Sometimes I worry that you actually have a death wish, you know.”

Momota laughs. “Nah, it’s just that a hero like me can’t just sit on the sidelines. If I let a little thing like this hold me back, I wouldn’t be a very good partner.”

She rolls her eyes. Tenko makes her own appearance in time and launches into her own near motherly scolding. Momota argues back, and Kaede lets her attention wander as with their amiable bickering calmly playing in the background. 

Hoshi sits quietly at one end of the table listening intently to Gonta asking Tojo to deliver his breakfast to his lab. Iruma is fussing over Kiibo getting himself all dirty, laying out a very detailed schedule of times she could intimately clean him. Angie chatters on about the strange nuances of her God to Yumeno and Shirogane, with Shinguji curiously writing down her every word in a simple notepad. 

The high spirits of the room come to a screeching halt when Gonta pulls open the doors of the cafeteria to return to his lab for the morning. He swings it open, and Ouma stands framed before them. 

With twelve burningly hostile glares trained on him, Ouma grins widely, folding his hands behind his head. “Morning, everyone!” he chirps. “I see everyone’s excited to see me.” 

Despite his leg, Momota is the first to stand. “You got a lot of fucking nerve showing your face here after yesterday.”

Ouma giggles. “Aw, don’t worry—I’m sad about yesterday, too.” He reaches up with one small hand to rub at his suddenly glassy eyes. “Hearing my beloved Momota-chan got hurt…” he shakes his head. “It just tears me up.”

“Like fucking hell it does!” he shouts. “Also I’m not your ‘beloved’ anything!”

He puffs out his cheeks. “You can’t dump me yet—we haven’t even been on our first date!” He sighs. “And I was so excited to meet your grandparents, too…” his face contorts into a dark smile. “Oops. Did I say something weird?” 

Momota stiffens. “You… what the fuck are you…”

Kaede stands. “You watched all the motive videos,” she says. “Didn’t you?”

Ouma hums. “Maybe—does that sound like something I would do?”

“Did you,” says Hoshi suddenly. “Or didn’t you?” His glare is one of death. “Answer the question.”

Angie gasps. “Oh, wow, Kokichi, look how mad you made him! Even God is surprised!”

“Your God sure is surprised by a lot of things,” mumbles Shirogane.

Ouma looks over the gathering crowd with half-lidded eyes. “You’re all so funny,” he says finally. “You choose the weirdest things to get mad about. It’s really funny,” he smirks. “You should keep it up—getting mad and emotional is sure to make the game really exciting.”

“Stop talking like that,” says Kaede walking straight up to him to glare down at the small boy. “People have died, and you keep running around doing things like—”

“People have died,” he says blandly. “That’s right, Akamatsu-chan. You should know that better than anyone. And you should also know why they ended up that way.”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but know that I want absolutely no part it in.” She glances behind her shoulder. “No one here wants any part of it.” 

His eyes slide over the students so definitively arranged on her side. “Then you’ll all continue to suffer,” he concludes. Then with a bright smile, “I hope you all have fun with that! Tojo-chan, I don’t feel like eating with everyone today. Bring me something later, would you?”

Tojo does not answer him, and he skips back out of the room without another word. She shakes her head. “I… will probably do that later.”

Kaede spins to face her. “Tojo-san, you really don’t need to—it’s not like he’ll just hide in his room until he starves or something.”

“If he tries,” says Tenko. “Tenko will bust down his door.”

“I don’t think that would help the situation,” says Shirogane. “And then he’d probably have to room with someone else…”

Iruma cackles. “I know exactly where the fuck this is going. Hey, hey,” she laughs, “Momota, he called you his love, yeah? Maybe when Chabashitra fucks up his door, you and he could—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Momota shouts at the same time Kaede says, “Nobody is breaking down anyone’s door!”

Iruma starts to snivel, and breakfast continues with its previous animation, with the exception of a new, dark atmosphere hovering around Hoshi. When the others begin to disperse for the day, he approaches Kaede with an almost anxious determination. “Akamatsu,” says Hoshi, idly fiddling with his cigarette. “A moment of your time?”

“Ah,” she fidgets, guilt prickling down her limbs. “Of course, Hoshi-kun. What do you need?”

He begins to walk away, but calls over his shoulder. “Come with me. We can talk on the way.”

Kaede shoots a look over to quickly confirm with Tenko—Momota already having left to badger Maki through the door of her research lab—before scurrying after him. The doors swing shut behind them, and Hoshi waits calmly in silence until they round the corner away from the lingering students to begin. “I’m not going to argue with you about the screening,” he says. “I get that you’re putting it off for some reason, and I also get that you’re not about to share that reason with me.”

She reaches up to adjust the brim of Saihara’s hat. “Sorry, Hoshi-kun. I promise it’s for a good reason.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Hoshi shrugs. “Your reasons are your own, and I assume you’re doing what you are because you want to be a good leader.”

Kaede blinks. “That’s… very understanding of you, Hoshi-kun,” she offers him a small smile. “Thank you.”

“I’d save the gratitude for after I tell you what I want,” he says, tone darkening. “You can see if you feel like thanking me then.” They reach the door to Gonta’s research lab, of all places, and he mutters under his breath, “I’m just doing this for my own selfish reasons.”

He slips through the door before Kaede can question him, and on the other side, Gonta’s sitting cross legged and beside himself with delight at having company. Hoshi says, “Mind if we join you for a moment? I need to ask you something.”

Gonta’s smile is bright. “Of course! Everyone is welcome! Oh,” he adjusts his glasses, “and if your question is about bugs, Hoshi-kun, then Gonta will do his best to answer.”

“It’s not,” he says taking a seat across from the much larger boy. “But if you have something about bugs you want to share, I’ll listen if you still feel like talking to me.”

Kaede frowns at Hoshi’s ominous words but sits next to him, care not to crush any passing insects when she folds her legs under her. “I’d be happy to listen too, Gonta-kun. Especially since we both missed the insect appreciation party.”

Gonta’s face falls. “Ah, Gonta is still very sorry about that. He thought everyone was having a good time and learning to appreciate insects, but really Gonta was just being stupid—”

“Stop,” says Hoshi. “No one here’s stupid, and no one blames you. Well,” he pulls at his hat. “If anyone does blame you then I guess that makes them stupid.” He shakes his head when the twin looks of surprise on Gonta and Kaede’s faces greet him. “Sorry. Ignore me.”

“No,” says Kaede. “Hoshi-kun’s right.” She offers Gonta a reassuring smile. “Everyone knows the insect party was just a big misunderstanding and that it was no one’s…” she frowns. “Well, it was someone’s fault, but that person’s not you.”

“Well said,” says Hoshi.

“Gonta is still sorry for being tricked,” he says. “Gonta wants to protect everyone, but he hasn’t been doing a very good job so far.”

Hoshi curses under his breath, mumbling, “Can’t believe I’m fucking doing this.” Then louder, “Gokuhara, I got a request for you.”

Gonta perks up at the sound of his name. “Do you need protection, Hoshi-kun? Gonta will do his best to use his strength—”

The words die when Hoshi pulls out a small, too familiar video player from his coat pocket. Kaede stares hard at Hoshi, and he addresses her when he says, “Figured being transparent as possible was the best way to go about this. Sorry for dragging you here, Akamatsu, but it made the most sense to let you see everything for yourself.”

Kaede works her mouth for a few seconds before finding the words, “You’re… trading your motive video?”

“Yeah,” he says before gesturing the player towards Gonta. “Or at least trying to if Gokuhara’s up for it. So,” he looks at Gonta. “What do you think? I’m not planning on committing murder, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Gonta briefly looks to Kaede for help. “Uh, w-well, Gonta trusts Hoshi-kun and wants to help him, but,” he frowns, a defeated sadness overtaking his gentle features. “Gonta doesn’t have your video…”

Hoshi stops, and Kaede squirms on the spot as she practically sees the aching disappointment swallow him whole. “I see,” he says slowly. The image of Hoshi’s video in Tenko’s hands flashes fast and biting through her mind.

“Gonta is really sorry… You can have the video Gonta did get if you want!” he offers. 

He shakes his head. “No, it’s fine—ignore me. Just figured it was worth a shot.” He shifts, rearranging his legs underneath him as he slowly becomes consumed with the need to explain himself. “Kiibo and Iruma were talking about trading videos, so I guess I just assumed all the videos were a one to one switch. That was dumb of me.”

Kaede suddenly perks up at his words. “Kiibo-kun and Iruma-san traded videos?”

Hoshi nods. “Yesterday at lunch before the bug,” he glances at Gonta, “incident, Kiibo let slip he had hers, and then she badgered him about it until he agreed to trade. I wouldn’t be too hard on him.” He pulls a new cigarette out of his pocket almost solely for the sake of busying himself. “Personally, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do to get her off my back, so I guess I sympathize.”

Kaede just sighs. “I know… I just wish they would’ve told me. I spent almost all day with Iruma-san, and she didn’t say a word.” She cradles her head in her hands. “I really hope she’s not planning anything stupid.”

“Oh,” says Gonta. “Gonta doesn’t think she would, but Gonta… doesn’t know Iruma-san very well.” He frowns. “She actually scares Gonta a little.”

Kaede laughs. “She scares us all. Still,” she fiddles with the brim of Saihara’s hat. “That’s one more thing I have to worry about.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her then,” says Hoshi. “Might as well do something with my time that’ll be of some good to someone.”

Kaede’s mouth is glued shut with guilt, so Gonta’s the one to say, “Oh, Hoshi-kun, Gonta understands that you have an important job now, but do you still want to hear about bugs? Gonta knows they’re not a special person, but…” he places one of his large hands on the ground and a previously fluttering butterfly comes to land on it. “They’re still pretty amazing.”

Hoshi’s sad eyes watch the butterfly flap its delicate wings and ascend to circle lazily above them. Very slowly, he says, “Guess I could stay for a while…” he reaches into his pocket and pulls out another cigarette. “Oh, do you want one of these? They’re just candy… and I figure I should probably pay you back for letting me hang around.”

Gonta seems genuinely confused at the gesture. “Why would you…” the butterfly lands again to perch on the top most curls of Gonta’s hair. “Gonta is happy to spend time with Hoshi-kun.” He smiles. “Gonta doesn’t need anything but Hoshi-kun’s company.”

Hoshi looks take aback. Gonta taps a finger to his chin. “But Gonta would also like to try one… if that’s okay…”

Hoshi shakes his head, but Kaede sees the smile slowly spilling out over his face. “I wouldn’t offer if it wasn’t,” he says. He pulls out another and offers it to Kaede. “You want one too, Akamatsu?”

She smiles and gently takes it from his small hand. “I’d love one.” 

Her grin only grows wider when she sees a second butterfly has come to settle on one of the points of Hoshi’s hat. 

-

Kaede eventually bids the two of them goodbye when evening comes in order to check up on Momota before training.

She finds him leaning against the wall next to the door to Maki’s lab, and he lifts one hand at her in greeting before when she approaches. Kaede lets herself take a seat against the wall next to him. “Any luck?” 

“Nah,” he says. “Oh, she did open the door when I brought her food, but no conversation,” Momota raises his voice to carry through the heavy door when he says, “but I’m not about to give up.”

“Well,” Kaede says. “I see she hasn’t attacked you while you’re down, so I’d count that as a success.”

“Then you have a really fucking low expectations for me,” he laughs. “C’mon—I’m a famous astronaut to be, give me a little credit.”

She shakes her head. “I’m sure you’ll get through to her one day… though,” she bites her lip, “I’m still not clear on why you want that. It can’t just be about protecting me, can it?”

Momota frowns. “Eh, that’s definitely part of it. But also,” he leans back against the wall. “I have to admit that some of the crap Ouma said has been getting to me. Like when he said we—what was it—‘knew why Amami and Saihara died’ or something…” 

Kaede pulls the brim of Saihara’s hat down. “What about it?” she asks in too small a voice.

“Well,” he sighs. “Mostly it happened because the mastermind’s a piece of shit, but I think it’s also cause they tried doing everything alone. Not relying on or trusting anyone’ll get you killed, and if I can stop that from happening to someone else, I will.”

Kaede pauses and chooses her words carefully. “That’s very kind of you…” she bites the inside of her cheek. “Is that also why you decided to make friends with me?”

Momota gives her a hard look. “I wasn’t really thinking about it like that, back then, but…” he rubs the back of his head, “guess I just like helping lonely people, and,” he grins, “I could tell you were pretty cool.”

She laughs. “Do you think Harukawa-san’s cool, too?”

He raises his voice to carry through the door again, “I think Harumaki is the very coolest, and she should come out here to talk to me about it.”

“‘Harumaki?’” Kaede asks.

“Yeah,” he says. “I thought of it the other day. And she hasn’t complained about it yet, so I’m gonna stick with it.”

Kaede laughs again. “You said she hasn’t talked to you at all.”

“Which means she hasn’t complained, so,” he raises his voice, “I can only assume that means she loves it, and wants everyone to call her it.”

There is no answer from the door, and something about that causes Kaede to erupt into laughter anew. “Well,” she says when her humor cools, “when you’re done talking to Harumaki, I’ll see you at training as long as,” she gives him a stern look, “you don’t do anything that’ll hurt your leg.”

“Yes, mom,” he says, and Kaede swats at his arm before she heads back to her room.

-

Kaede and Tenko end up exiting their rooms together, and while Kaede offers Shinguji hiding in the shadows her routine wave, Tenko just frowns. 

Shinguji waves back, and, after Kaede elbows her, Tenko does, too.

Outside in the quiet night, Tenko begins showing Kaede the basics of the proper footing for her most used Neo-Aikido moves. When Momota joins them, Tenko and Kaede make the silent decision to switch to purely arm based exercises. He rolls his eyes but offers only a token protest at their concern.

The night wears on, and conversation begins to lull as Kaede finds herself more and more out of breath with each exercise. Tenko and Momota’s casual banter slows, too, and the stars shine brightly above.

Then a sudden crack of a twig breaking echoes through the night, and Kaede hears a startled yell coming from the path around the back of the arbor. Tenko shoots up from her seat on the bench and is already sprinting to investigate the sound. 

With his leg, Momota only manages a brisk walk, and Kaede keeps pace beside him, a deep worry silently passing between the two of them. Kaede can’t help but hurry the last few paces around the bushes encircling their training spot.

Rounding the corner, she sees Tenko standing before a panicked Kiibo and Iruma placing both her hands on her chest in an attempt to collect herself. “What’s going on?” she asks, leaving Momota behind to run up to the trio. “Did someone scream?”

Iruma raises her hand. “I-I did,” she shakes her head, “holy fuck Kiibo, you scared the absolute shit out of me.”

Kiibo jerks oddly but does not speak. 

“Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “Are you alright?”

“I-I,” his speech is far too jilted. “I see-seem to be hav-having a malfun-mal-malfunction. I-I-I wanted—need re-repair. I-I need, I-Iruma-san.”

“Can you fix him?” Tenko asks. “Uh, Iruma-san? Iruma-san?”

Kaede takes her nervous gaze off of Kiibo to see Iruma blushing wildly. “I—!” she shouts suddenly. “I can do that! I can fix you all night!” 

He shakily nods his head. “P-please.” 

Iruma begins giggling almost uncontrollably as she takes Kiibo’s willing hand to lead him down the path to her lab.

Kaede blinks after the pair, and Momota snorting behind her finally brings her back to reality. “Those two are fucking weird.”

“I’m,” Kaede starts, “not going to argue with that. Hope Kiibo-kun’s alright, though.”

Tenko shakes her head. “He really must be an awful boy, making us all worry like that.”

They walk back to their training spot, and Kaede lets out a yawn. “I say we call it for tonight—I’m pretty tired,” she glances at Momota, “and one of us definitely needs rest, whether he wants to admit it or not.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he says. “And besides, exercise is good for you, even if you’re injured or something.”

Tenko frowns. “That’s not true.”

“Well, details aside,” he pumps his fists. “I’m getting stronger, and this leg’ll be better in time.”

Kaede laughs, plucking her backpack off the ground and swinging it on to her shoulders. “I think I’m getting stronger, too." She mirrors his pose. “I can run further, lift more, and my backpack feels lighter already!” 

She and Momota trade matching grins while Tenko groans. “Kaede-san,” she says. “Don’t get caught up in his nonsense! You’re better than that!”

“Hey!” Momota squawks. 

Inside the dorm, Shinguji offers as easy greeting, and Momota salutes the three of them before wandering back to his own door. Shinguji offers the two girls a, “I believe I will head to my room, too,” with a bow of his head. “As always, I appreciate you letting me observe your training sessions—they are quite fascinating.”

Tenko pulls a face, but Kaede replies, “It’s no problem.”

Shinguji silently slips into his own room, and the door shuts behind him with a soft click. Alone, in the dormitory, Tenko turns to Kaede. “Uh, Tenko knows it’s late, but she wanted to ask you if,” she bites her lip, “if you’ve thought of anything to do with Hoshi-san’s video.”

Kaede sighs. “I haven’t. I hung out with him a lot today… but I still have nothing. And putting off the screening is just leading to one mess after another.” She looks up at her. “Do you have any ideas, maybe?”

“Tenko’s been thinking through a few things, but,” she frowns. “None of them seem very practical.” 

Kaede moves to push her door to her room open. “Wanna talk about them now? I think I could stay up a little later—and the sooner we think of a solution, the better.”

Tenko’s face flushes pink. “Y-you’re inviting Tenko into your room for the night?”

Her actions suddenly catch up with her, and Kaede feels her face grow warm. “Uh, just to talk and plan and stuff.”

“R-right,” Tenko stutters. “In that case, Tenko will do her best to focus!”

Kaede nods again, and stays up late into the night thinking up plans and then throwing them away again. After one too many scratched efforts, she glances to the clock and to Tenko drifting in and out of sleep in one of her chairs. After a moment of debate, Kaede gently pushes at the other girl’s shoulders till she stirs back to wakefulness with a start. 

“T-Tenko’s awake,” she stammers.

Kaede laughs. “It’s okay, you can sleep.” She smiles. “Just thought I’d offer a blanket if you want to spend the night.”

Tenko blushes again, but accepts and falls back asleep by the time Kaede returns to her chair, blanket in hand.

Kaede’s own sleep is peaceful, and she does not imagine for a second, that the girl sleeping next to her would ever betray her. 

-

The sharp, frantic knocks on her door jolt Kaede out of her deep sleep with an abrupt start. Dazedly, she glances around the room to see Tenko’s chair unoccupied, but with the blanket folded neatly to the side. She pushes herself to her feet and glances at the clock to discover that after a late night of futile planning, she has missed her early rising hours. 

The knocking does not cease for a single moment as she scrambles over to the door and pushes it open. 

Any complaints at the noise die in her throat when she sees Tenko’s sweating, pale face. She doesn’t need to say a word for the dread to hit Kaede like a truck. “Tenko-san?” she asks.

“Tenko decided to wake up early,” she begins, her words coming out in a frenzied rush, “and she didn’t want to bother you, so she didn’t say anything, but then Tenko went to the gym to work out to wake up more, and, and Tenko, and” she takes a deep breath. “And Tenko found a puddle of blood.”

Kaede’s brain refuses to process the words for a moment, and she stands gaping at the other girl. 

Tenko’s shifting from foot to foot. And her words, “What should we do?” bring Kaede back to earth.

“W-we,” she shakes her head. “We can’t—it was just blood, right? So we don’t… we don’t know that there’s been…” she can’t force herself to form the words ‘another murder.’

Kaede shakes her head again. “We can’t know until we investigate. Gather as many people as you can,” she says, “I’ll start looking around the school for…” she swallows “clues.”

Tenko nods in ascent. 

The journey around the school is painful and turns Kaede’s stomach into sick knots. She finds the pool of blood Tenko discovered in the gym with a few of her classmates staring dumbstruck at it. The rest of the gym is devoid of anything that strikes Kaede as needing investigation, and she leaves, the only new information gained being which few of her classmates she knows for sure are still breathing.

Kaede’s search continues, and she slowly but surely runs into almost everyone. One person she knows she should have seen by now is still missing, and Kaede tries to think of absolutely anything else. Back outside in the garden, she runs back into Tenko with Kiibo now at her side. “Find anything?” she calls out. 

“Nothing!” says Tenko. “But,” she and Kiibo jog up to Kaede. “Kiibo-san just reminded Tenko of one place we haven’t checked yet.”

Kiibo says, “We’ve searched the entire school, but I don’t think anyone’s investigated the outside buildings.” He grimaces. “My first thought is the pool.”

Kaede takes a deep breath, and nods, finding whatever remaining strength she has to lead her classmates to the corpse they all know is waiting.

Kiibo and Tenko are on either side of her when Kaede pushes the doors to the pool open. 

Tenko gasps and covers her mouth with her hands while Kiibo takes a step back, placing a hand over his heart. Kaede feels something akin to despair wash over her as she sees the bloodied body lying next to the completely still pool. 

She breathes out, “Tojo-san…”

And a chime goes off to say a body has been discovered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, it's been too long. And there's finally a corpse! Some people guessed totally right, but I think that's alright since it means that the discovery doesn't just come out of nowhere and the victim gets some screen time. Although if people want things to be more surprising, I might switch up the style for the next in-game chapter a little since I kind of love hearing people's guesses about victims/murders and stuff, haha.


	6. Investigation I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Descriptions of a dead body, blood, and violence.

Tenko stands outside the pool building with a grim expression on her face to direct everyone slowly towards the site of Tojo’s body.

Inside, Kiibo kneels next to her facedown, motionless corpse, careful not to disturb the small puddle of blood underneath her. Kaede sees his robotic shoulders move up tightly and then relax back down as if he were trying to take deep breaths. She catches herself idly wondering if robots can even cry before walking over to place a gentle hand on his shoulder. 

Kiibo is silent but does not push her away, leaving Kaede to say, “I’m so sorry Kiibo-kun… you two spent a lot of time together… I’m,” she shakes her head. “This shouldn’t have happened.”

“No,” he agrees. “It shouldn’t have. It shouldn’t have been Tojo-san… it shouldn’t have been anyone.”

Kaede nods her head in grim agreement. The sight of Tojo’s still body is almost blinding with the rush of emotions it causes to surge through Kaede. Images of the other girl, calm and reassuring and so, so heartbreakingly alive burn fresh and painful into her mind. 

And then she remembers the last time she found a corpse, and the raw guilt of Amami’s death bubbles up from whatever depths she had slowly been burying it to. But with Amami’s death, she thinks, there had been pure, stinging guilt and shame at what she had done. There had not been the sharp fear of the fact that one of her friends was a murderer, and _she had no idea who._

She stares at Kiibo again, and hates the brief flash of fear she feels towards him. Because she knows he was so friendly with Tojo, and he’s obviously so upset, so he definitely couldn’t be a murderer. Kaede bites her lip.

She doesn’t know. _She doesn’t know._

The sounds of a few entering students echo behind her, drowning out her panic with sheer noise alone.

Angie gasps out, “Kirumi!” and skitters over, kneeling beside Kiibo. “Oh no,” she says in a smaller voice. “God didn’t tell Angie this would happen! Angie actually liked her…”

Hoshi and Shirogane make a slower approach, the latter having gone pale and clasped both hands over her mouth in shock. Hoshi eyes the body for a moment before letting out a deep sigh. He pulls down his hat a little further and says, “Goodbye, Tojo—you were one of the good ones.”

Angie coos in agreement, “She really was.” She steeples her hands above her head. “Angie will pray for God to help Kirumi make it peacefully into heaven.” 

Kaede offers her a smile. “That’s very kind of you Angie-san.”

“Mhmm,” she hums. “You should pray, too, Kaede. In fact,” she glances around before placing a hand over one of Kiibo’s metal ones. “God thinks everyone should pray together. If everyone prays, then God will totally let Kirumi into heaven, no problem.”

Shirogane tilts her head. “Is that how… getting into heaven works?”

She nods. “Yep, yep! Ooh, Tsumugi, if you’re interested, Angie could totally tell you all about God and how great he is later. God always guides Angie in times like these—and in regular times, too!”

“I… see,” says Shirogane, perplexed. 

“God is always with Angie,” she goes on. “And it’s basically the best. Tsumugi, if you want, God could totally be with you, too!”

Hoshi frowns. “Stop using Tojo’s death as an ad for your cult.”

Angie puffs out her cheeks in protest, but any further comments become lost in the sounds of more hurried footsteps. Kaede looks behind her in time to see Iruma shriek and physically leap backwards, a dull thud echoing through the room as she collides with Gonta behind her. 

At the impact, Iruma starts forward, only being saved from careening straight into the pool by Gonta’s large hands reaching out to steady her shoulders in a flash. He starts to say, “Iruma-san,” to comfort her before spying the cause of her distress. He’s fast on his feet, and—though likely unintentional—ends up shoving Iruma hastily to the side in his efforts to get past her. In her new forceful stumblings at the edge of the pool, along with an added quick, unseen poke in the back from a nonchalantly whistling Ouma, Iruma ends up crashing straight into the water. 

Kaede’s left staring openmouthed at the display as the rest of her classmates hurry past the spectacle of Iruma’s sudden flailing to gather around Tojo’s side. 

Of the new arrivals, Gonta’s the first there and immediately breaks into tears. “Tojo-san,” he says between sobs. “G-Gonta is so sorry—Gonta wasn’t strong enough to protect you. Gonta should have—”

“Ah, it’s okay, Gonta,” says Angie. “It’s sad that Kirumi’s gone, but you can still pray to God for her.”

“Gonta can?” he asks, looking at her with a new found hope. Somewhere in the distance, Kaede hears Iruma let out a choice string of unanswered curses. 

“Of course!” says Angie, resting a reassuring hand on his arm. “If everyone works together to pray, then God will totally let Kirumi into heaven, and everything will be okay, and you won’t have to be sad anymore. God will be with you and Kirumi.”

“Then,” he says, clasping his hands together with renewed determination. “Gonta will pray extra, extra hard for Tojo-san!”

Angie beams. “God’s super glad to hear that, Gonta!”

Hoshi frowns, “Gokuhara, you don’t need to…” before shaking his head. Kaede, alone, hears him mumble out, “Forget it,” under his breath before pulling his hat down and turning away from Angie and her new disciple. 

Kaede takes a step towards him when Momota suddenly appears at her side, breathing still labored from his earlier sprint around the school. She looks up to his narrowed eyes and tightly clenched jaw. Kaede opens her mouth and he cuts her off immediately. “Don’t,” he says. “There’s no point in getting weepy or blaming yourself or shit… We just have to power through and do whatever comes next.”

She nods, “right.” Then, her eyes slide back to Kiibo, kneeling completely silently next to Tojo’s body while everyone hovers and chatters in their own private horror around him. 

Without a word to Momota, she approaches him, but, again, he speaks first. “I’ll go help Iruma-san out of the pool,” he says, no emotion tinting his robotic voice. 

He stands and walks away from the gathered group without another word to help the spluttering Iruma escape the pool. 

“Ah, so,” Shirogane says, her timid voice cutting through the chatter. “What do we do now?”

“Why you investigate!” cheers Monokuma suddenly appearing from nowhere, followed by his remaining cubs. “Because it’s time for round two!”

Yumeno pouts. “We’re going to have to do another trial? But the first one was so hard…”

Kaede grimaces. “This isn’t a choice is it?”

“Nope, nope, nope!” he responds. “Weeeeell, I guess you could choose not to investigate and let the killer get away, and then I would get to show off my super cool mass punishment…”

“G-Gonta doesn’t like the sound of that,” he says hurriedly. 

“Oooh,” says Monokuma. “But one of you here definitely does! In fact, they’re probably just tingling with excitement at the idea of getting out of here right now! Ah, the joy of committing a murder and being completely unsuspected…” 

“Ah, so there’s another killer in the group,” says Ouma brightly. “This is so exciting! Ooh, I wonder who it could be…” he taps a finger to his chin. “I sure hope it’s Iruma-chan.”

Dripping wet at the side of the pool, most of the fight is drained from Iruma, and she merely grumbles, “Leave me the fuck alone, you,” she sighs deeply, “I don’t know, midget cock-sucking horse monster.”

Ouma laughs. “Oh, wow, I’ve never been called that before!”

Momota slams his fists together. “Alright, that’s enough fucking around.”

“Oh, it better be,” says Monokuma. “Because each investigation has a time limit, and when I say it’s time to start the show, then it’s time to start the show!” His voice drops to something more insidious. “Whether you’re ready or not.”

The pink Monokub seems close to tears. “How cruel—what a cruel thing for father to say.”

“Yeah,” says the one with glasses. “It’d take a real asshole to just go killin’ someone for no reason. Especially one of their siblins’ or somethin’.”

The robotic one is completely silent as it emits a strange, threatening aura. Then the red Monokub, jumps up, “Al-alright, alright, that’s enough. Everyone’s happy, and no one’s going to kill anyone else, and we’re all the best of friends…”

“I-AM-HAPPY-TO-HEAR-THAT,” Monodam says. 

“Nah,” says Monosuke. “I’ve had enough of this cowerin’ in fear bullshit! I say we take a stand, and—”

The robot bears continue bickering in the background as Kaede turns to face the group as a whole. “Alright, everyone,” she says, desperately quieting her own nerves. “What happened here is horrible, but there’s nothing we can do, but do it. So,” she pumps her fist, “we all need to work together to investigate. For Tojo-san’s sake.”

Kiibo stands, pulling Iruma to her feet as he does so. “I agree. I don’t know why this happened—but my inner voice is telling me that I can’t just let myself be consumed by grief. We need to keep moving.”

“Th-that’s right,” says Shirogane. “All of our lives are on the line… so we can’t let anything stop us from finding the truth and bringing Tojo-san’s killer to justice. Ah!” she clasps her hands together. “I totally sounded just like a shounen hero, didn’t I?”

Kaede nods. “With all of us working together—” suddenly she spies a figure standing off from everyone else. She stutters on her next words as the figure’s piercing red stare drives straight into her. “—w-with everyone working together, we can pull through this.”

Tenko steps forward from the rest of the group. “Well said. Now what should our first step be then?” 

Angie waves a hand in the air. “Ooh, Angie remembers there was a pool of blood in the gym! God says there has to be a clue there!”

“Gonta will help,” he says. “Gonta isn’t going to let any of his friends get hurt ever again.”

The two run off without another word. Kaede finds herself automatically looking to Hoshi expectantly, but he merely pulls out a new candy cigarette from his pocket, seemingly very caught up in twisting it between his fingers. 

Iruma’s voice is the next to cut through the room. “I’m going to fucking change.”

Momota blinks at her. “Dude, Iruma, when’d you fucking get all wet?”

Yumeno looks her up and down slowly. “Oh, did you cast a rain spell or something? How didn’t I see that…”

Ouma bursts into laughter, and Iruma grinds her teeth together as she says, “Fuck all of you, scrawny, dickless virgins,” and stomps off out of the room.

“Well then,” Shinguji says, voice rising above Ouma’s continued giggling. “I believe the Monokuma File is usually the best place to start.”

Kaede nods in affirmation. She pulls her backpack off her shoulders to grab her Monopad when her heart nearly stops. Because inside her backpack, she sees her own Monopad and only two Monokubs’ pads. 

Her sudden freezing in pure panic catches Tenko’s attention, and the other girl says, “Kaede-san?” but all Kaede hears is a roaring caught in her ears. She jerks her head up, and her eyes quickly dart from Shinguji looking concernedly in front of her, down to Hoshi staring at his own Monopad, and finally to Maki’s silent form watching her like a hawk.

Her eyes meet Maki’s own, and the secret assassin hiding among them all gives her the coolest gaze as Kaede feels herself beginning to break out in a cold sweat. 

Tenko’s now hovering near her side, but it’s Shinguji’s voice that pulls her back to reality again. He says, “Akamatsu-san? Is something wrong?” and Kaede remembers that she has to be the leader.

She swallows and prepares to take another crisis silently on herself. With a forced laugh she says, “Everything’s fine. Just didn’t see my Monopad for a second behind my spare vests.”

“I see,” he says raising his eyebrows, though seemingly satisfied with her answer, returning to inspecting the file on his own Monopad. 

When Kaede is relatively confident he is no longer paying her the same focused attention, she whispers to Tenko, “We have a really big problem. But,” she glances around the room again. “We can’t talk now.”

Tenko pales, but nods jerkily in confirmation. Both girls turn to the Monokuma File, though Kaede’s brain is rushing rapidly over every possibility that comes to her, and—with a fresh corpse not feet from her—one sings bright with paranoia, far louder than the rest. She barely registers the words on the Monokuma File the first time she reads them as she thinks about a time when she left her backpack completely unattended in her room with one other person. 

She bites her lip, and pushes the thoughts down with a quick, half-confident, ‘why would Tenko-san possibly do that after giving me her video in the first place?’ The girl in question seems focused on her Monopad, and Kaede shakes her head to regain her focus, and lies to herself that she didn’t notice Maki’s sharp red eyes still trained almost soley on her. 

On her second read through, Tojo’s fate becomes clearer. 

The victim was Tojo Kirumi, the Ultimate Maid. Her body received many cuts across primarily the arms and torso, and a final slash across her throat was the cause of death. Then, Kaede frowns as she sees Tojo’s time of death marked as the frustratingly vague ‘night.’ 

Momota is the first to complain. “‘Night?’” he parrots. “Didn’t we get an exact time for Amami’s death last time?”

“We did,” says Shinguji. “I believe Monokuma once mentioned something about attempting to keep things fair between us and the killer.”

“So,” says Kiibo, still flicking through the file as best he can with his metal fingers. “The time of death is probably a very important clue to the killer’s identity.”

“My thoughts exactly,” says Shinguji, glancing up the rest of the remaining students. “I don’t presume anyone happens to have the ability to ascertain a time of death?”

“Tenko knows a lot about combat injuries,” she volunteers. “But not much about… death injuries. Neo-Aikido rarely—if ever—involves the death of one’s opponent.”

Hoshi sighs. “Unfortunately, it’s about the same for me. I never really stuck around the bodies much after I killed them.” 

Kaede blinks at his comment. And the realization that, ‘Oh right, Hoshi’s a murderer,’ nearly blindsides her. Over her thoughts, Shirogane says, “Oh, it’s times like these that I wish I had played more mystery games…”

Ouma hums. “Looks like having someone around who could do that would just make things too easy, huh? Real shame we don’t have someone like a detective to help out…”

Kaede stiffens. “No, we don’t,” she says curtly. “And we obviously can’t find out what the time of death is right now, so let’s just move on.”

Yumeno raises her hand. 

“Yes, Yumeno-san?” prompts Tenko. “Do you have something to say?” She gasps. “Can you use your magic to discover the time of death?”

“No,” she says. “I just wanted to say ‘not it’ for investigating the body.”

Tenko suddenly jumps on the spot. “Don’t worry, Yumeno-san, like Tenko said, she is very knowledgeable about combat wounds and will handle the investigation to her utmost ability. Actually,” she stands strong with one hand on her hip and another pointed in the vague direction of most of her male classmates. “For Tenko’s investigation, all boys must leave the area.”

“What?” squawks Momota. “Why? I can’t do shit if I can’t—”

“The Monokuma File said Tojo-san received injuries all across her body, and Tenko will need to thoroughly inspect her wounds.”

“So?” he persists. “I don’t get fucking queasy around blood or anything like that, so what’s the—”

Maki speaks up for the first time since entering the room. “She’s likely going to be undressing parts of her to better examine her injuries.” She shakes her head. “And I assume Chabashira is hanging on to some ridiculous ideal about preserving Tojo’s dignity even though she’s dead.”

“O-Oh,” Momota stutters. “Well, erm,” he coughs. “Guess I could leave for a little while then.”

Tenko nods. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “No fair, no fair! I want to see the corpse, too! I don’t care if she’s naked!” 

Tenko scowls. “Tenko will give all awful boys ten seconds to leave the room.” 

“Fine, fine,” says Hoshi. “I’ll check out the gym, then.”

“I’d like to investigate the storeroom,” says Shinguji. “That is where the last murder weapon came from, so perhaps it could shed light on this investigation as well.”

The two make to leave, and Momota hangs back to tell Kaede, “I’m gonna see if I can round up a few alibis or witnesses or something so I’m not completely fucking useless.”

“That’d be helpful,” she says. “But don’t push yourself too hard, since,” she glances down at his leg. “You’re still hurt, aren’t you?”

He waves his hand as he backs away from her, a slight limp noticeable to Kaede’s wary eyes. “Maybe, but the great Momota Kaito isn’t about to let a little thing like that hold him back.”

Kaede rolls her eyes at his grin, and waves him off while Tenko and Ouma argue behind her. Ouma hops back and forth from foot to foot, trying to get around Tenko and make a dash for Tojo’s body. “I just want to look for a little while, Chabashira-chan! C’mon, let me see, let me see!”

Tenko’s countdown is almost at its end. “Four, three, two—”

“I hate to interject,” says Kiibo. “But do I need to leave the area as well?”

Ouma attempts to dart past Tenko, but she quickly lunges out and grabs him in some kind of inelegant choke hold. 

The increasingly loud squabbling as Ouma tries to bite at Tenko’s arm leaves Kiibo’s question to fall on deaf ears. Kaede says as reassuringly as she can, “You can stay if you want to, Kiibo-kun, but I also understand if you’d want to leave. You and Tojo-san were…”

He frowns. “I did consider her to be one of my closest friends here, yes. If anything,” he says. “That only makes me blame myself for not being able to stop this. Especially since I spoke to her before nighttime yesterday… which may have been the last time anyone besides her killer saw her…”

Kaede perks up at his words. “You talked to Tojo-san last night? Do you know what time it was?”

“Well,” Kiibo begins. “I think it was about twenty minutes or so before nighttime, and I was helping her sweep up around the second floor. Logically, it was still kind of a mess from the bug appreciation party—lots of dead bugs and dirt on the floor—but with Tojo-san’s skill, we finished up pretty quickly.”

“Okay,” says Kaede. “Did she say where she was going after that?”

He pauses, attempting to recall the memory. “I believe… she said she was going to spend a little time putting away our cleaning supplies in her research lab and that she was going to reorganize some stuff there.”

“I see,” says Kaede. “Kiibo-kun, would you actually mind inspecting Tojo-san’s research lab? There could be clues there if that was the last place she went.”

Kiibo nods. “Understood. I will do my best.”

He begins to turn away from her, when another thought bursts into Kaede’s mind and she grabs his arm. “Oh, also, Kiibo-kun,” she says. “One more question. I don’t know if this is at all related to Tojo-san, but what happened to you last night? Are you okay now?”

His face suddenly flushes pink. “Ah, y-yes, I am fine. I just seemed to have had a slight malfunction and ran to get Iruma-san. Admittedly, I was probably a bit more panicked than I needed to be.”

“Oh,” says Kaede. “Well, I’m glad you’re alright. Did Iruma-san say what the problem was?”

“She, ahem,” he looks distinctly embarrassed. “She said there was a lot of debris in one of my fans. I suppose my efforts at cleaning did have some repercussions.”

Kaede frowns at his words. “Only one of your fans?”

Kiibo nods. “Yes. At least, she only mentioned one of them as being excessively dirty.” His face grows concerned. “Do you think this has something to do with Tojo-san?”

“It could just be a coincidence,” she says. “But it’s a little weird something like that would happen the same night she was killed…”

Kiibo’s eyes light up. “Am I a clue?”

“Ah, maybe,” Kaede answers.

“Then,” he places both hands triumphantly on his hips. “After I inspect Tojo-san’s lab, I will get a fuller report from Iruma-san. And I will bring Tojo-san’s killer to justice in no time.”

Kaede watches him scurry to the exit, determination flowing through him anew. She lets herself smile just a little before a large splash from the pool behind her crashes through the room. Kaede only sighs, already expecting the sight of a now freshly soaked Ouma emerging from the water’s surface with an overtly dramatic gasp for air. 

Tenko’s standing at the side of the pool brushing her hands off, while Shirogane and Yumeno curiously watch from behind her. 

Now treading water, Ouma lets out an exaggerated, “Fine! I’ll leave!” He begins to sniffle. “I just want to help with the investigation, and everyone’s being so mean to me…”

Whatever waterworks he’s attempting seem to get lost somewhere in the fact that he is already drenched, causing him to abruptly stop in his fake crying, frown for a moment, and then let out an annoyed sigh before swimming back over to the edge of the pool. He pulls himself out purposefully in front of where Kaede’s standing, and proceeds to shake his head back and forth like a dog.

She doesn’t give him the satisfaction of flinching and just rolls her eyes. “You could use a towel, you know.”

Ouma glances up at her, a wide smile crawling over his face. “I could. A towel is something you do tend to use when you’re in a pool, huh?”

Kaede frowns. “What does that mean?”

He shrugs. “Towels are things people use, Akamatsu-chan. I don’t see how that’s weird. Anyway,” he trills, hoping to his feet. “I’m going to launch my new, cool, no-Chabashira-chan’s allowed investigation.”

“You should probably dry off first,” offers Shirogane. “You’re going to track water everywhere.”

He grins. “You’re right, Shirogane-chan. And if I did that, Tojo-chan’s ghost would probably get pretty mad at me!”

“Do not make fun of Tojo-san like that!” shouts Tenko. 

Ouma suddenly turns pale. “Oh no, am I going to get thrown again? I better run!”

And he whips past Kaede, heedless of Shirogane calling after him to be careful about running in a pool. “Especially after Iruma-san tracked water everywhere!” she finishes. 

Kaede shakes her head when a thought occurs to her. “Hey,” she begins. “That reminds me, Tojo-san’s body is completely dry, right?”

Shirogane and Tenko both frown, but hurry back over to the corpse. “It looks dry to me,” says Shirogane. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Kaede says walking over to them, “I was just thinking about how easy it seems to be to fall into the pool, but I guess that didn’t happen to Tojo-san.”

Maki’s cold voice catches her off guard again. “Of course not,” she says. “It’s in the rules that swimming isn’t allowed at nighttime unless you want to be killed by an Exisal. If Tojo or her killer happened to fall in, then an alarm would have sounded.”

Tenko gives her a hard look, but says “So, that means Tojo-san and her killer were very careful when they came here?” She frowns. “The pool seems like a really bad place to do anything that would require a lot of moving around or fighting because of the nighttime rule.”

“Maybe the killer just snuck up on her then?” asks Shirogane, kneeling down beside Tojo’s body. “I mean,” she shudders, “if they caught her off guard and did it really fast, then they wouldn’t have had to worry about running around the pool or accidentally falling in.” She shakes her head, looking significantly paler. “This is horrible to think about. Poor, Tojo-san…”

Kaede nods in agreement. “That’s why we need to keep searching, for Tojo-san’s sake.”

“Y-yes,” Shirogane agrees before directing her gaze to Tenko. “Erm, Chabashira-san? I’m… okay with blood, and I know quite a bit about clothing tears, so do you want help with,” she swallows, “the body?”

Tenko tightens her jaw but nods before she kneels down next to her. “Tenko really hopes this is okay and doesn’t disturb the crime scene,” she mumbles.

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut as a biting memory of herself standing before a corpse and being so very impressed at Saihara’s calm, collected demeanor in examining the person she just killed. Kaede curses herself for a lot of things, particularly not paying as much attention as she should have to the procedure he detailed for how to investigate a body. With Saihara, she had mostly been focused on how amazing she thought he was. And then she killed him, too. 

But of course, with Amami, she had known every detail about his demise, and it had been her silent hand guiding Saihara’s investigation. Tenko takes a deep breath to prepare herself for flipping Tojo’s body back over, and Kaede tires desperately not to think about how discovering the answers to this crime would be a blind grope through the darkness. 

Kaede can’t help but look away when Tenko finally rolls Tojo over. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Shirogane involuntarily flinch at the sight of Tojo’s wounds. Kaede attempts to look again, and notices the dried blood pouring down her throat and over the front of her chest. More blood pokes out in thinner lines from cuts in her shirt along her arms and across her stomach.

Tenko takes another deep breath and begins to unbutton the front of Tojo’s shirt to get a better look at whatever wound they know lies under her high collar. 

Kaede winces and looks away again. Further away from the entrance, she spies where Yumeno had wandered off to when Tenko had announced she was going to begin her examination. 

Kaede shuffles over to the smaller girl, noting quickly that Maki seems to have chosen to just coldly stare down at Tenko and Shirogane as they start their grim task. She says, “Yumeno-san, what are you—” before catching sight of something just in front of the other girl’s feet. 

Yumeno stares with her eyes firmly fixed on a kitchen knife, the blade stained with thick streaks of blood. “This,” she says shakily. “Is probably the murder weapon, right?”

Kaede struggles to form words for a moment before crouching down next to it. “Ah, well,” she frowns. “The Monokuma File did say her cause of death was a slashed throat, and…”

“A knife,” Yumeno says slowly. “Would probably do that…” 

“R-right.”

“What are you two mumbling about over there?” says Maki, suddenly materializing behind Kaede. 

Kaede jumps slightly at her voice unexpectedly being much closer than she thought it had any right to be, while Yumeno answers, “I found the murder weapon… unless it’s a decoy,” she juts out her bottom lip. “In which case I found a fake murder weapon.”

Kaede frowns at her. “You think it could have been planted here?”

She shrugs. “Maybe. I just think someone would probably wanna take the murder weapon with them, y’know.”

“Not necessarily,” Maki says. “A kitchen knife is pretty anonymous, and carrying around a bloody weapon is too likely to attract attention for any smart killer to try it.”

“Oh,” says Yumeno. “In that case I definitely found the real murder weapon.”

Despite her near emotionless expression, Kaede thinks she can detect the slightest bit of pride radiating from her, and says, “This was a really good find, Yumeno-san.”

She turns to Kaede, pausing a moment blankly before saying, “Yeah,” and nodding her head a few times. Kaede smiles at her again, and she scuttles over to Tenko and Shirogane, the slightest embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

Not wasting time staring after her, Kaede stands and looks at Maki watching her carefully. “Harukawa-san,” she says, “I suppose this is a bit late, but I wasn’t expecting to see you out of your lab.”

No emotion crosses Maki’s face. “I wasn’t expecting to leave either, but then a corpse showed up.” She shakes her head. “I don’t really know what you think of me, Akamastu, but I’m not the kind of person who would simply sit around when my life is on the line.”

“No one here is,” she says, frowning at the implication. 

She shrugs. “If you say so.”

Kaede sighs. “Well, I guess I’m glad you want to work together, even if it’s only for a little while.” She glances down at the knife again, the title on Maki’s motive video flashing through her mind. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about knives, would you? Can’t imagine it’d come up a lot in your line of work…”

Maki regards her for a moment before saying in the same, emotionless voice. “It doesn’t. Good children don’t play with knives.”

“Erm, right,” Kaede says. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“Any other questions or can I return to doing something actually useful?”

Kaede sighs, but says with as much patience as she can muster, “Just one more. I know Kaito likes to hang out outside your lab, and I’ve never seen you return to the dorms during training, so you stay up pretty late, right? Did you happen to see anything on your way back to your room last night?”

Maki pauses, crossing her arms. A moment of silence passes, and she says, “Are you suspecting me?”

Kaede blinks. “No, I mean, that’s not why I asked you.” She crosses her arms in turn. “I just want to collect as much information as possible.”

“Is that so,” Maki says. “Well, perhaps, I might have noticed something, but I think I’d prefer to keep it to myself.”

“Fine,” says Kaede, huffing. “I don’t suspect you. Now what is it?”

“You being suspicious of me isn’t the problem,” she answers. “I, personally, am suspicious of you.”

“What?” 

She shrugs. “I simply think giving every piece of information to someone who attempted to help the killer last time might not be the best idea. Forgive me for not falling in line with everyone else.”

Kaede’s mouth forms a tight, thin line. She chooses her words carefully, and says, “If you purposefully choose to withhold important information, Harukawa-san, then the only person you’re helping is the killer.”

“And I wouldn’t want to be like you with Saihara,” she says, and brushes past Kaede on her way back towards the body. 

Kaede pauses for a moment to take in a deep breath and let it back out. She reaches up to straighten Saihara’s hat, and forces herself to walk as nonchalantly as possible back to the others. 

She hovers over Tenko and Shirogane’s crouched forms, deliberately putting Yumeno between herself and Maki. 

The top of Tojo’s apron has been undone, as has most of her shirt, and Kaede can clearly see a pattern of random, shallow slashes spilled out over her bare skin, and a light coat of dried blood running over almost the entirety of her visible torso. The cut on her throat is caked with dried blood, and Kaede finds it difficult to look directly at it. 

But almost more disturbing is the eerie silence falling over the first three girls, and Tenko’s face near frozen in absolute horror. Maki’s launched into pestering them to explain themselves, and Kaede spies a bloodstained Monokubs’ pad in Shirogane’s hands. She says, “You found a motive video?”

Tenko is too stunned to speak, so Shirogane stutters out, “i-it was hidden in her apron, and, um,” she bites her lip and looks over at Tenko. 

“What’s the matter?” asks Maki. “Turn it on. It’s clearly important evidence.”

Kaede can see a slight sweat beading on Yumeno’s forehead when she says, “Uh, maybe it’s an illusion. Maybe it’s fake evidence like the knife wasn’t.” 

Kaede glances between the three of them, and Tenko looks up at her helplessly. Kaede says, “Whose is it?”

Shirogane bites her lip again and presses to turn it on with a shaking finger.

The motive video for Chabashira Tenko: Ultimate Neo-Aikido Master begins to play. 

Life immediately returns to Tenko, and she whips her head up to look at Kaede and Yumeno standing above her. “Tenko swears she didn’t do it,” she says. “Tenko would never hurt Tojo-san, and she never even saw her video before now.” 

She staggers to her feet, and her voice is one of pure desperation as she says, “You have to believe Tenko. Please.”

“Ah,” Shirogane stands as well. She mumbles, “I-I think I might go check on the others…” and scurries away.

Tenko calls after her, “Shirogane-san! You have to—!”

“She doesn’t have to do anything,” says Maki. “Especially blindly trust the current biggest suspect.”

Tenko rounds on her. “Tenko did not kill Tojo-san,” she says, a new fierceness creeping into her voice. 

Maki crosses her arms and begins to walk away. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” 

Tenko moves to step after them, and Kaede reaches out to put a hand on her shoulder. “Let them go,” she says. Tenko turns back to her, her increasingly frantic worry painted clear across her brutally terrified face. And that makes Kaede abandon every thought she had about Tenko turning on her in a heartbeat. She squeezes her shoulder. “I know you didn’t do it.”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko rubs her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “Thank you. Tenko promises she’s innocent.”

Very quietly, and with a slight hint of discomfort, Yumeno says, “We should keep looking for evidence.” Tenko’s eyes light up when she looks down at her. Yumeno glances away, but says, “You know, to prove the video’s an illusion.”

“Yumeno-san,” she says, her hands over her heart. “Thank you, so much. Tenko will not let you down.”

Kaede nods again, and as much for her own reassurance as Tenko’s she says, “You already have an alibi for most of the night, since we were together, so we just need to figure out what time the murder occurred.” She pumps her fists. “And if it happened when we weren’t, then we’ll just have to prove that you still couldn’t have done it.”

“Chabashira has an alibi?” Yumeno asks. “Oh, that’s really good…”

“Y-Yumeno-san,” says Tenko. “D-did you doubt Tenko?”

Yumeno pauses, and then says, “I found a kitchen knife a little while ago. Does that prove Chabashira’s innocent?”

“Um,” Tenko thinks. “Neo-Aikido does not use kitchen knives? So maybe?”

Kaede suppresses her sigh, and asks, “Did you find anything else about the body, Tenko-san?”

Yumeno mouths the words, ‘Tenko-san,’ while the girl in question answers, “Tojo-san’s wounds are just like the Monokuma File said, and were likely caused by a knife or other sharp object. Tenko would guess that the number of slashes and the range of depths and angles suggest that Tojo-san likely fought back against or dodged out of the way of her killer’s weapon before her death.”

Kaede nods. “Hmm, but that makes the location of the pool all the more strange, right? Tojo-san fought with her killer, and nobody fell in the pool and nothing got wet.”

“Maybe stuff did get wet and they dried it?” asks Yumeno. 

“Maybe,” says Kaede before a rather annoying thought occurs to her. “Hey, Yumeno-san, I kind of hate to ask this, but could you go check to see if any of the towels look like they’ve been used?”

“Sure, as long as you don’t leave without me,” she says, and shuffles away.

Kaede turns back to Tenko as soon as Yumeno begins to walk away, and asks, “Did you find anything else besides the video?”

Tenko nods. “Yes. One of Tojo-san’s gloves is missing, and Tenko discovered blood under her fingernails, which is another sign that she bravely fought against her killer.”

“Blood?” says Kaede. “Do you think that means the killer got hurt?”

“It is a strong possibility,” Tenko says. “However, the only problem is that the only spots of blood are under Tojo-san and,” she glances along the side of the pool to the murder weapon, “directly under the knife Yumeno-san found.”

“Maybe there was more blood and the killer used one of the towels to wipe it away?” Kaede asks. Internally, she thinks, is that what Ouma was talking about?

Yumeno’s voice carries back to them, “All of the towels are there, and none of them looked used.” Standing next to them again, she says, “I even did the extra work of checking the hamper, and I didn’t see any.”

Kaede frowns at the idea of extra work being glancing over at an empty basket for two seconds. 

Tenko says, “Excellent work, Yumeno-san. By the way, did you happen to see one of Tojo-san’s gloves while you were looking?” 

She pouts. “I was supposed to be looking for a glove, too?”

“Not necessarily,” says Kaede. “I mean, if it’s missing, it’s missing… though that’s really weird.” 

“Right,” Tenko says clapping her hands together. “Should we now begin the search for Tojo-san’s missing glove?”

“Will that lead us to the killer?” asks Yumeno.

“Ah, maybe?” says Kaede. “Oh! One second,” she reaches around and pulls her backpack off. With one quick, weighing glance at Yumeno, she says, “Tenko-san, remember that problem I mentioned earlier?”

Tenko nods. “Can we talk about it now?”

Yumeno looks between them. “What’s happening?”

“Oh, do not worry about Yumeno-san, Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “We can trust her. Tenko has no doubts in her mind that Yumeno-san is a trustworthy person.”

Kaede looks down at Yumeno’s blank face, and Tenko stage whispers, “As you can clearly see from Yumeno-san’s expression, she is very happy at being included.”

Kaede debates the merit in questioning that statement for a moment, before shaking her head and pulling the remaining motive videos out of her backpack. “Anyway,” she says. “Earlier when I was looking for my Monopad, I realized that one of the motive videos I was carrying somehow went missing.”

Tenko’s eyes widen. “What? Did—there’s no chance you just dropped it, isn’t there?”

“No,” says Kaede. “I don’t think so.”

“You were carrying motive videos around?” asks Yumeno. 

“Yes,” she answers. “I had mine, Tenko-san’s, and Kaito’s.”

Kaede pulls out the two remaining videos, and Tenko is practically radiating with nervous energy. “Which one’s gone?” she asks.

“We’ll have to turn them on to see,” says Kaede. “Which is kind of why I wanted to wait for the room to clear out a little.”

Yumeno frowns. “But if the video Chabashira got is right here, then why was her motive…” she puffs out her cheeks. “I don’t get it. Does this mean she’s innocent?”

“My best guess,” Kaede says. “Is that she’s being framed. And it very well could be by whoever stole one of the videos I was carrying.”

“But who even knew you had them in the first place?” Yumeno asks dimly as Tenko moves to turn on one of the videos. 

Kaede says, “I don’t know,” quietly as Shinguji’s motive video flicks to life. 

“Oh no,” says Tenko. “Kaede-san, if Shinguji-san’s video is here, then one of the missing ones is a really, really bad one, right?”

“It… seems that way,” she says before turning on the other video. 

There is a pregnant beat of hesitation before Monokuma’s voice rings out to once again remind them that there is no one in the outside world who cares about Hoshi Ryoma. The color drains from Kaede’s face. She says, “Harukawa-san…” 

“Do you think,” Tenko begins. “That Harukawa-san is the killer then?”

Kaede shoves the videos back into her backpack. “Maybe. Someone else always could have stolen it… and there’s still a chance it just fell out somewhere or isn’t related at all.”

Yumeno says, “Hoshi doesn’t have any friends?”

“Ah,” Tenko turns to her. “Th-that’s just what the video says. But, Yumeno-san, do you—”

“Hoshi’s in the gym, right?” she says. “Someone should say something to him… someone who’s good at emotion stuff.”

Tenko falters. “Yumeno-san…”

Yumeno glances up to one of the high windows. “Is the gym through there? If I had enough MP, I’d use a spell to lift us up to the window, but…” she shrugs. “I’m out for the day.”

“R-right,” Tenko recovers. “Yumeno-san has worked really hard during the investigation so far.”

“Uh, yeah,” says Kaede looking up to the window. “That reminds me of something, actually, though. I’m not sure if it’ll help too much, but it might be useful to get a bird’s eye view of this room.” She points up to the other window. “If we go up to that room, we can probably get a better image of the scene of the crime.”

Yumeno frowns. “I can’t use my magic to lift us up there, either.”

“Uh,” says Tenko. “What room is that anyway? Tenko doesn’t think she’s ever been up there.”

Kaede begins to lead them out of the pool. “It’s actually Hoshi-kun’s research lab. I don’t think he ever went up there, though.”

“Why not?” asks Yumeno. “My lab’s real cool and stuff—even if it has a bunch of stuff for normal magicians instead of mages.”

Kaede briefly ponders how to go about answering that question. “Well,” she says. “The room’s kind of weird. But we should head that way anyway—see if we can meet up with Kiibo-kun.”

On the path back to the school, Kaede reaches one hand up to wave as she sees Momota jogging to greet them. “Hey,” he says. “Find anything?”

Kaede nods. “A few things. You?”

He rubs the back of his head with one hand. “I talked to some people, but for most of the night no one saw jackshit or has an alibi.” 

“Unfortunately, that’s kind of to be expected,” Kaede sighs. “Oh, well. We’re heading up to Hoshi-kun’s lab to try and get an overhead view of the pool. Want to come?”

“Hell yeah,” he says, joining them in their stroll to the school. “I can fill you in on what little shit I did find.

“So first,” Momota begins. “I tried talking to the people in the gym and Shirogane when she showed up a little later, and they were all completely useless. All of ‘em say they went to their rooms just before nighttime and didn’t leave till this morning. And none of them saw Tojo after dinner either.”

“Oh,” says Yumeno. “That’s all true for me, too…”

Tenko gasps. “Momota-san! Apologize to Yumeno-san!”

“For what?” he asks. “A testimony like that _is_ useless. Kaede, back me up here!”

“Maybe later,” she says. “Did you find out anything else?”

He huffs but continues. “Uh, let’s see—I saw Ouma running around soaking wet for some fucking reason. He was really annoying but basically implied the same thing as everyone else. Also he kept going on about how of course he wouldn’t go to the fucking gym at night because he’s not a rule breaker or something.”

“It is against the rules to go to the gym at night,” says Tenko. “Which means anything that happened there, would have had to happen before nighttime.”

“Oh shit,” Momota frowns. “Forgot about that. Does that mean I need to go fucking ask everyone again?”

“It’s probably fine,” says Kaede. “Especially since it’s unlikely the killer would just happen to give away what they were doing because you asked for a slightly different time frame.”

“True,” he hums. “Alright, next was Shinguji, and he said that he just went to do his normal creepy observations in the dorms for most of the night before going to bed after us. Which fucking blows, because I already knew all of that shit.”

“Did he mention seeing anyone else leave or come back to the dorms?” Kaede asks.

“Just us and Iruma and whatever the fuck happened with Kiibo last night,” Momota says. “Oh, by the way, I found Kiibo banging on Iruma’s door to try and ask about his repairs last night—apparently he didn’t even know the fucking details. And then all Iruma said was that it was really fucking gross since he was full of dead bugs and shit from Gonta’s appreciation party.”

Tenko pulls a face. “Gross. The party was two days ago, so that means Kiibo-san has been wondering around full of dead bugs for…” she shudders. “This confirms it—Kiibo-san is definitely an awful boy.”

“I found some dead bugs in my pocket this morning,” Yumeno volunteers.

“T-Tenko means, that such a thing could happen to anyone!”

“Smooth,” says Momota. 

Before Tenko can fight him, Kaede says. “Okay, and since the three of us were at training, that means the only person unaccounted for is Harukawa-san, and,” Kaede sighs, “I really doubt she’s going to feel like cooperating.”

Tenko stiffens. “Tenko thinks that we should avoid Harukawa-san for the time being.”

“Yeah…” Yumeno mumbles. 

Momota blinks at them. “Something happen?”

“I’ll… tell you later. Ah,” says Kaede jogging the last few steps and away from Momota’s questions. “Looks like we’re here.”

Inside Hoshi’s lab, Kaede immediately notices something off. The other three file in behind her, and Yumeno puts a finger to her lip and says, “Uh, aren’t there usually nets in tennis?”

Everything is exactly how Kaede remembers first entering the room, with the distinct exception of the now missing net. She walks over to one of the poles were it was formerly hung up on. “You’re right…”

Tenko says, “What an amazing observation, Yumeno-san!” in the background as Kaede runs her fingers along the remaining piece of cord wrapped around the pole, its end hacked at and frayed. 

“Hey, Kaito,” says Kaede. “Tennis nets are pretty strong, right? How hard would it be to cut one?” 

He approaches and immediately begins rubbing his chin with his hand. “They’re pretty tough—and I’m willing to bet the one’s here are probably even stronger to handle Hoshi’s swings.” He reaches out and runs his fingers along the top of the severed cord. “You probably could cut it though. ‘Specially since it seems like whoever did this one went apeshit on it.”

From across the room, Tenko calls out. “There is no cord on this pole. If someone removed the net, Tenko assumes they simply untied it.”

Kaede frowns. “Why would someone cut one of the cords, but not the others?”

Momota shrugs. “Good question. Maybe they just didn’t know how you should take a net down and figured it out halfway through or something.”

“Could be,” answers Kaede. “Also, where’s the net?” 

Yumeno hums. “I don’t see it, but my powers of magical detection say it’s probably through that door,” and her small hand points towards the door to the shower room.

Momota grimaces. “That’s a pretty good bet. Dragging a whole tennis net around the school even at night is just asking to attraction attention, huh?”

Kaede nods, and they head through the door into the lab for the Ultimate Prisoner. Tenko and Yumeno both stand agape at the sight. Tenko says, “What kind of place is this? Why would Hoshi-san…”

“My personal theory is it’s Monokuma’s fucking joke or something,” says Momota. “Guess we never really mentioned this place, since it basically just exists to taunt Hoshi.”

Kaede walks over to the missing net haphazardly folded in the corner. “But the killer definitely knew about this place,” she says. Glancing over her shoulder, she calls out. “Everyone look around—there’s probably a lot of evidence here.”

“You think so?” asks Yumeno. “Does your magic tell you?”

“Well,” says Kaede. “I guess something definitely tells me the killer was less concerned about cleaning this place up. They were probably betting on nobody coming here, since it’s so out of the way from the investigation.”

“Right,” says Tenko. “Tenko will get a better view of the crime scene below.”

“Uh,” says Momota. “And I guess I’ll look around with Yumeno.”

“Tenko changes her mind. Momota-san can look at the window, and Tenko will search with Yumeno-san.”

“You’re pretty awful at flirting, Chabashira.”

“Tch! J-just like an awful boy to imply something so crude.”

Kaede lets their arguing fade into the background as she runs her hands over the net. She finds the one severed piece of cord, but it offers no further explanations. Unfolding the net from its balled up form, Kaede notices that the other end of the net is slightly damp. She moves her hands across its length. A little more than half of the net is slightly damp. 

She frowns, and reaches up to absently fiddle with the brim of Saihara’s hat. 

Momota’s got his head stuck out the window, but his voice calls out clearly, “You know what’s weird? There’s no fucking trail or spots of blood between Tojo’s body and the knife. Like, absolutely nothing dripped blood or got moved.”

Tenko looks up from her own investigation of the sink. “Now that you mention it, Tenko does remember that. And she thought it was odd because the knife was so far away from the body.”

Kaede opens her mouth to weigh in when Yumeno jumps back from one of the shower stalls. Tenko is immediately at her side as the small girl begins to tremble. “Yumeno-san, are you alright?”

She points a finger inside one of the stalls, and Tenko lets out a gasp. “Ah, Yumeno-san, your investigation skills are amazing!” 

“What is it?” asks Momota, Kaede joining him in peering around the two girls. “Oh shit! Is that a motive video?”

Shoved up against the far corner of the shower, carefully placed to be hidden from anyone walking by, is another pristine Monokubs’ pad. Tenko calmly walks past Yumeno and picks it up. Yumeno lets out a slight noise of surprise when she does so. Tenko whips towards her, “Yumeno-san? Is something wrong?”

“Oi, Chabashira,” says Momota pointing. “Behind you. Looks like there was something under the video. Looks like…”

Kaede blinks at the sight, and approaches to pick it up herself. “Tojo-san’s glove…” she turns it over in her hands and almost drops it at the sight of a thin smear of blood on the inside of it. Kaede immediately goes about turning it inside out. “Why is there blood,” she asks, “inside of Tojo-san’s missing glove?”

“Why the fuck is her glove all the way up here?” asks Momota. 

“Um, everyone,” says Tenko. “Tenko isn’t sure about the glove, but everyone should really watch this.”

And with that Tenko turns the already playing Monokubs’ pad towards them, and the video for Tojo Kirumi: Ultimate Maid continues to play.

The four of them are stunned into absolute silence as the video details Tojo’s exploits of reaching out to help the entire country and how absolutely everyone is depending on her. 

When the video finishes, Momota says, “Holy fuck, someone killed the prime minister.”

And then a bell sounds that says it’s time for the trial to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone enjoys my attempt at making a semi-complex murder (though I know I'll likely never reach in-game levels of complexity, haha). Also, quick question, the trial is approaching next chapter and would people be interested in an attempt to incorporate the various mini-games involving talking to the other students into the chapter? I see positives and negatives to either approach, and am curious if there's a strong feeling for or against.


	7. Trial I

Kaede’s mind is racing when they begin the walk to the class trial. The last time she had made the journey, she had accepted that she was embarking on her own death march. But that had been the enemy she knew. Momota, Tenko, and Yumeno walk in front of her, the latter two finally filling him in on the details of their up close examination of their deceased friend’s corpse. Yumeno noticeably leaves out the part about finding Tenko’s assigned motive video held tightly to Tojo’s chest, and Tenko is even more noticeable in her hesitant correction.

Momota nods, taking in the information with an almost uncharacteristic grimness. “I see.”

Kaede looks them over, silently assessing them from under the brim of Saihara’s hat, and bites her lip. 

She’s made the choice to trust Tenko, but that was an easy choice. Tenko handed over her given motive video without a second thought. Tenko spent the majority of the night of the murder only inches from Kaede’s side. Tenko, herself, stood with her through the entire investigation, looking as hard and as earnestly as she could for evidence to corner the killer. 

“Tenko promises she didn’t do it,” she assures, and Momota nods again.

Of course, Kaede did the exact same thing to Saihara. But she doesn’t think anyone else would be that cruel. 

Kaede readjusts the brim of Saihara’s hat. Upon a second of closer observation, trusting Tenko is not the leap of faith she had made it out to be when they had stood over Tojo’s bloody corpse. 

She lists off the people she knows couldn’t have done it. Herself. Tenko. Iruma is one of the only people she knows isn’t the mastermind, and Kaede prays the other girl didn’t whip around from being her only potential ally to throwing her life away. 

Yumeno and Momota, _maybe._ Kaede’s own paranoia threatens to eat her alive as the latter pushes open the doors of the school. The open morning air greets them, and Momota says, “I know. You’re definitely fucking being framed.”

Tenko blinks up at him. “You believe Tenko?”

“‘Course I do,” he says. “You might be kind of a pain, but you wouldn’t go and fucking do something like that.”

Tenko huffs. “Tenko is not a pain, but,” she frowns, a seriousness settling heavily over all of them as they near the landing to take them down to the trial. “Thank you.”

Kaede silently wishes she had even a fraction of Momota’s blind optimism as he finishes his sweeping encouragement. “No problem—but you better be ready, Chabashira. You’re going to have to fight once we get down there, got it? Don’t let them drive you into a corner or nothing.”

She nods. “Tenko understands, and she is prepared.” 

“I can use my magic to see if any accusations are illusions,” offers Yumeno quietly. 

Tenko says with the utmost gravity, “Thank you, Yumeno-san. Tenko will be counting on you.” 

Momota grins, and without another word, he leads the way boldly to the landing, the others already gathered. Tenko takes a breath, tightening her resolve before following him and Yumeno nervously shuffling behind her. 

Kaede centers Saihara’s hat on her head and readies herself to play the role she was never meant for. She claps her hands to focus everyone’s attention on her. “Alright, everyone here? Good,” she says, eyes carefully avoiding Maki’s stoic form off in the corner. “Now I understand that everyone is probably really nervous. Honestly, I’d be worried if everyone wasn’t, because plainly,” she takes a deep breath, “this shouldn’t have happened. We shouldn’t be here, and the fact that we are means I have failed you, and it doesn’t matter how much I apologize for that because it will never be okay.”

She sees Momota take a step towards her, but no one says a word. Kaede straightens her shoulders and continues. “Tojo-san should not have died. And I take responsibility for not doing enough to stop this. However, for her sake—in order to find some justice for her—and for everyone’s lives, we all have to work together. Maybe you don’t like me,” she dares to say next words straight to Maki. “Maybe you hate me or don’t trust me, but right now we plainly have no other options. So,” she pumps her fists, “let’s do everything we can.”

It’s not a surprise that Momota’s the first to speak, “Took the words right out of my mouth—I’m with you all the way, Kaede.”

Kiibo nods. “I agree. If everyone works together,” he smiles, “I know we can avenge Tojo-san.”

“And we can not fucking die,” says Iruma. “But, yeah, whatever, friendship and all that crap.”

“Aw, well if Akamatsu-chan says it,” says Ouma. “Then it must be true!”

“Except for you,” Iruma amends. “You can fucking die. First thing in the goddamn morning and I get shoved into a fucking pool.”

Hoshi gives her a dark look. “Tojo was also found dead this morning. Don’t think that’s more important?” 

“W-well, yeah,” she says. “B-but th-that doesn’t mean I didn’t get all wet! And not in the good fucking way like usual every morning, so don’t even—”

“Hey, pig,” says Ouma. “Shut up.”

“P-pig!?”

“The elevator’s here,” Maki observes coolly. “I suggest everyone finishes their inane conversations quickly. I doubt Monokuma will wait forever.” 

She quietly enters the elevator, and Ouma skips after her. “Ooh,” he cheers. “This is going to be so much fun!”

Iruma hurries after him. “The fuck are you going? You can’t just call me a pig and run off, you pasty ass virgin!”

“But, he’s just going to the elevator?” Shirogane muses quietly, walking pointedly slower after them. “Ah, well, I just hope they stop fighting when the trial actually starts.”

“I do as well, Shirogane-san,” says Shinguji, stepping into pace next to her. “It would be quite irksome to waste time with needless bickering when everyone’s lives are at stake.” 

Gonta approaches Kaede as Kiibo voices his agreement, entering the elevator as well. “Ah, Gonta had something he wanted to say really fast if there’s still time.”

“Of course,” says Kaede. She glances over his shoulder to give a quick nod to Tenko and Momota to go on ahead. Turning back to him she says, “What do you need?”

He shifts nervously. “Gonta’s kind of an idiot so he’s probably not going to be very helpful,” he says. “But Gonta also wants Akamatsu-san to know he’s going to try his very best, especially since it’s mostly Gonta’s fault that… that we’re here again.” 

She frowns. “Gonta-kun, unless you’re the culprit, you had nothing—”

“No,” he says. “Gonta really liked your speech, but he knows what happened to Tojo-san is also his fault. Gonta,” he takes a deep breath, “really, really wants to protect his friends, and he just keeps failing. He couldn’t protect Tojo-san or Amami-kun or Saihara-kun, even though he said he would.” 

Kaede’s mouth forms a tight line. It’s the two of them, and out of the corner of her eye, she catches Hoshi hanging just outside the elevator’s entrance, listening in. “Gonta-kun, listen to me. Sometimes things happen that are absolutely awful and are absolutely outside of your control. And you can’t constantly blame yourself for those things.”

“But, Akamatsu-san, you said it was your—”

“I know what I said,” she interrupts. “And,” she grimaces, “my situation is complicated. All I’m saying is that you can’t beat yourself up over what you didn’t do or what you should have done. Because,” and she reaches out to place a reassuring hand on his arm. “You couldn’t have known. And you can’t fault yourself for not being psychic.”

He nods slowly. “G-Gonta knows. Gonta just,” he shakes his head. In a horribly small voice, “Gonta just wants to help and feels like he can’t do anything.”

The words resonate deep within Kaede’s core. “I know. I really, really know. So,” she pumps her fist. “We’ll just have to keep moving forward and try even harder. Together, okay? Promise me?”

“Gonta promises,” he says. “Gonta will do his absolute—”

“Are you guys fucking coming or what?” Iruma’s voice calls out to them. “This elevator’s about to go down on this bitch, with or without you.”

Kaede sighs, but turns to Gonta with her best encouraging smile. “Guess we better get going.”

“Right,” he says. “Thank you, Akamatsu-san.”

“Of course,” she says, and the two walk to the elevator.

Gonta makes his way to the back, and Hoshi files in behind Kaede. Very quietly under the ambient murmur of the others he says, “That was real nice of you.”

“Ah, thanks,” she says. “I have to admit it was for him as much as for myself.”

Hoshi nods. “That’s fair, also,” he eyes Saihara’s hat atop her head. “You actually plan on keeping that promise about not blaming yourself?”

Kaede lets out a humorless laugh, reaching up to her run her fingers over the brim. “No, not really. Just between you and me, I’m a pretty big hypocrite.” 

“Your secret’s safe with me,” he says. “Just don’t let Gokuhara catch on.”

“I don’t plan on it,” she says, and Hoshi takes a step to distance himself from her before the elevator starts to move.

And silence, thick and heavy, presses over them as the elevator hums happily in their deep descent. But the inside of Kaede’s head roars with sound. They had failed in the last trial, but yet here they all were, lined up to find another murderer among their friends. Kaede takes a deep breath. Two trials in, and they’d still yet to find one murderer.

The space beside her remains painfully empty with no Saihara to encourage and push forward and buildup and then throw down to save herself. They reach their destination and slowly fill their respective podiums, primed for them to sentence someone to death. 

Kaede stands at her own between Gonta and Yumeno and looks across the way to see Momota is now suddenly flanked on either side by portraits of the dead. The X on Saihara’s portrait runs jagged and uneven, widening at the top to block out his one visible eye completely. 

There’s no time to collapse under the weight of her own guilt, however, as Monokuma from up on his throne begins to speak. “Alrighty then! I’m sure you all still remember the rules of the class trial from last time,” he says. “But in case you somehow managed to forget, one person here among you is a murderer! And if you can figure out who, then I get to give them a very special punishment but,” he brings his tiny paws up to his mouth, “if you don’t… then I get to punish everyone else instead, puhpuhpuh! Either way, I win! So get to it!”

Kaede seizes the first word in the brief moment of hesitation that falls over everyone. “Alright, everyone, I think the simplest way to do this is for everyone to say where they investigated and share their findings so we can all work with the same information.”

“Uh, well,” Gonta begins. “Gonta went to—”

“So what should we start with?” Ouma says, bouncing on his heels. “I say we accuse someone and see where we go from there!”

Gonta blinks at him. “Oh, but Akamatsu-san just said we should start with sharing, so Gonta—”

He waves his hand. “Nah, that’s boring. I say we accuse someone! That always gets the ball rolling.”

Kaede bites back the irritation already welling up inside her. “Ignoring for a moment that I’m the leader and I already proposed how we should begin,” she says. “Isn’t starting with an accusation a bit much?”

“I agree,” says Kiibo. “Logically, we should begin with the facts we do know first before—”

“I think Kiiboy did it!” Ouma announces.

“Wh-wh—Me!?” Kiibo shouts before thrusting a finger in Ouma’s direction. “This-this is just more of your discrimination against robots, isn’t it? B-but to be accused of murder just because—”

“Because you were wandering around at night weirdly for no reason?” Ouma asks tilting his head to the side. 

“You little brat,” Momota says. “You were fucking listening in on our conversation, weren’t you?”

He waves his hand. “Details, details. Point is he was acting suspicious, right?”

Kiibo stutters, “I-I admittedly was out at night, but that does not mean—”

Ouma turns to Monokuma. “Hey, hey, last time you said I almost broke the record for fastest trial. What happens if I do it this time?”

“Ooh, wow,” Angie says. “Are we done already? That was so fast! Even God’s impressed!”

“Oh, I guess Kiibo did do it,” Yumeno yawns. “Good, I wanted time to nap before lunch anyway.”

“W-wait, Yumeno-san,” Tenko says. “It is important that you are well rested, but we cannot jump to conclusions about this!” 

Ouma huffs. “You’re all interrupting. I wanna know about the record for fastest trial!”

“Everyone, please stop!” shouts Kiibo. “I am not the culprit!”

“Kiiboy,” Ouma says, examining his fingernails. “I’m trying to ask Monokuma a question. It’s rude to interrupt.”

“It is also rude to recklessly accuse me of murder!” he says. 

“It’s not reckless, though,” Ouma says. “Here, I’ll sum up what happened, and then we can vote.”

Kaede blinks as Ouma launches into his explanation. Last trial, she had already known all the answers going in. Now, she feels herself moving through the dark, and her control of the situation is already rapidly falling away. 

Ouma says, “First, Kiiboy met Tojo-chan at the pool. Then he killed her and ran outside. He was really dumb and clumsy about it and made a lot of noise, scaring Iruma-chan, who was leaving her lab. He easily fooled Iruma-chan by faking a malfunction, endured having to be around a gross pig like her for a little while, and then went back to his room.” He grins up at Monokuma. “Is that right? Am I right?”

“Nothing about that was right!” Kiibo shouts. “Just because I was outside at night does not mean I am the killer.” He places a fist over his chest. “You cannot declare someone is a murderer on such baseless theories alone.”

Kaede finds her voice. “Kiibo-kun is right. We shouldn’t suspect him—or anyone else for that matter—unless we have proper evidence.”

“Why not?” Ouma asks. “This is a class trial, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes,” she responds, furrowing her brow. “But we should still believe in people first before we doubt them.”

“No,” he says. “The rule here is guilty till proven innocent.” He gives her an odd look over Yumeno’s head. “And even then that sometimes isn’t enough.”

She knows it’s a threat against her. Kaede pulls Saihara’s hat down lower over her eyes. But this isn’t about her. “Think what you want,” Kaede says, steeling herself against him as much as her own paranoia, “but I’m going to choose to believe until there’s proper evidence. And right now I believe Kiibo-kun is innocent.”

“Ah,” Kiibo gasps. “Thank you, Akamatsu-san. I promise that I am.”

“Yeah,” Momota says. “You know what? I fucking believe in you, too.”

“Kiibo-san and Tojo-san were close friends,” Tenko adds. “Tenko doubts he would ever hurt her, so Tenko also believes in him.”

“Oi!” Iruma barks. “If anyone’s going to fucking believe in Kiibo, it’s me.”

The robot is taken aback. “Everyone… you all—”

“Are ignoring your plainly suspicious behavior,” Ouma says. “All the belief in the world doesn’t mean someone’s not a murderer.” His eyes slide to Kaede again. “Sometimes.”

She clenches her fists. “Ouma-kun if you have a problem with me, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t accuse my friends just because you don’t like me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he clicks his tongue. “Akamatsu-chan, this isn’t all about you, y’know. This is about Kiiboy and his clumsy, incompetent murder.”

“Kiibo-kun did not murder anyone,” Kaede says. “I know he didn’t.” She gives Ouma a long look. “And I think you know he didn’t either.”

“But what’s your evidence?” Ouma asks. “C’mon! Show me your evidence, Akamatsu-chan.”

Kaede reaches up to fiddle with the bill of Saihara’s hat. She furrows her brow and thinks. 

_(Present your Argument)_

Kiibo begins, “I admit that I was outside during the time of the murder, but that does not mean I killed Tojo-san!”

“Cleary, Kiiboy is the most suspicious person here,” Ouma smiles. “Except he’s not a person.”

“Please stop discriminating against me!” he shouts back.

“Oi, Kiibo,” Momota interjects. “You gotta stay focused if you want to beat this brat. Did you run into anyone when you were outside or something?”

“Yes!” he responds. “I ran into Iruma-san almost immediately!” 

“Fucking scared the shit out of me, too,” Iruma says. “What’d you do? Fucking go Godzilla apeshit on that branch?”

“I-I apologize for that again, even if I do not remember doing such a thing!” 

“Did you apologize to Tojo-chan before you killed her?” Ouma asks.

“Ouma-kun! Do not say things like that!” Kiibo says.

“Kiiboy! Do not kill people like that!” Ouma mimics back.

Kaede opens her eyes.

_(BREAK)_

“Ah, Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “I know you’re not going to be happy about this, but Ouma-kun’s right.”

“Ooh, I am?” he smiles.

“What!?” Kiibo shouts.

“Like fucking hell he’s right about jackshit!” says Momota. 

She quickly shakes her head. “He’s not right about Kiibo-kun being the killer, but he is right that, well,” she fiddles with the brim of her hat. “You’re not a person, Kiibo-kun.”

“A-Akamatsu-san!” he says, mouth gaping open. “I have come to expect this from Ouma-kun, but you too?”

“Ah, Tenko thinks she understands!” she interrupts. “Akamatsu-san, you mean Kiibo-san is not a human, right?”

“Wow, Chabashira-chan, too?” Ouma laughs. “Man, Kiiboy, you’re getting bullied hard. I feel so bad for you.”

“But… you were the one who just accused him of murder,” Shirogane mumbles. “Repeatedly.” 

Tenko says. “What Akamatsu-san simply means is that this is a crime that could have only been committed by a human.”

Kaede nods. “That’s right. Tenko-san and I investigated Tojo-san’s body at the crime scene. When we were examining her, we noticed that one of her gloves was missing, and there was blood under her fingernails.”

“Which,” Tenko chimes in. “Is a telltale sign that Tojo-san fought back against her killer.”

Hoshi says, “Think I get it. The blood under her fingernails belongs to the killer, and since Kiibo can’t bleed, he can’t be the one who attacked Tojo.”

Kiibo points a finger at Ouma. “Which means it is impossible that I killed Tojo-san! So stop accusing me!”

“Unless your oil looks like blood,” Ouma says. “Ooh, ooh does it? Does it?”

“I told you, I do not run on oil!” Kiibo says. “And no, none of my mechanical fluids look anything like human blood.”

Iruma speaks up. “There isn’t a whole lotta fluid in him anyway. I mean, I was fucking working him hard last night and barely a drop came out.”

Kiibo nods. “That is correct.”

Shirogane says, “He’s just totally oblivious to it, isn’t he?”

“A-anyway,” Kaede stutters. “The point is that since he’s a robot, it’s impossible for Kiibo-kun to be the killer.”

“Is that so?” Maki asks, speaking up for the first time since the trial began.

“Huh?” Kaede says.

“You’re making some leaps in logic,” she says. “You said the blood has to belong to the killer. But how do you know? It’s suspicious that Tojo just happened to have one of her gloves missing, so the evidence could easily have been something we were meant to find.”

“Ooh, ooh,” coos Angie. “You’re saying it was planted by the killer?” 

Shinguji nods. “Harukawa-san makes a good point. If Kiibo-kun is the culprit, he easily could have simply used Tojo-san’s blood to fake that evidence and make us dismiss him like this.”

“Nah,” Ouma says. “I don’t think he’d think ahead like that. Kiiboy’s not that smart.”

“Ouma-kun, do not—”

“No, I think we can trust it,” says Kaede. “Especially if we all think about where we eventually did find Tojo-san’s glove.”

“You found the glove?” Shirogane asks.

Hoshi frowns at her. “Weren’t you investigating the body with them?” 

“I-I was,” she says. “But I left to join you in the gym before that, so I… wasn’t there for that part. Sorry.”

“Oh wait,” drawls Yumeno. “I was there… and I think I remember… feels like it happened just yesterday or something…”

Momota snorts. “That’s ‘cause it happened like fifteen minutes ago.”

“Momota-san!” scolds Tenko. “Do not insult Yumeno-san! Please apologize for your behavior.”

“Bullshit! I didn’t fucking do anything!”

“Ooh! Fight, fight, fight!” cheers Ouma.

“You shut the fuck up, too!” Momota shouts.

Ouma sniffles. “Oh no… did I make my beloved Momota-chan angry at me? Don’t get mad—it’s probably all Kiiboy’s fault anyway.”

“St-Stop randomly accusing me of things,” the robot says, the fight draining from his voice.

Tenko claps her hands. “All terrible boys be quiet and listen to Yumeno-san.” She glances to the smaller girl, still thinking hard. “She has something very important to add to our debate.”

Shirogane mumbles, “I’m not sure if you can call what just happened a debate…”

“Oh, I remember now,” says Yumeno, tapping a finger to her chin. “It was hidden in that weird room, right? Why was it up there anyway?”

Kaede fiddles with the bill of Saihara’s hat. “I’m… not quite sure about that yet… but,” she says, finding her confidence anew. “It was really out of the way of the rest of the crime scene, and it was hidden under,” she debates her next words, “something the killer probably would’ve wanted to get rid of if they had noticed it.”

“Oh?” asks Ouma. “What’s this mysterious something? Keeping secrets, Akamatsu-chan?”

“Also what is the ‘weird room,’ if you don’t mind Gonta asking,” he says.

“I’ll…” she begins, “clear those things up in a minute, but they’re not important right now. But my point is that from its arrangement in the place we found it, there’s good reason to suspect that Tojo-san’s glove was something she hid from the killer.”

“Well, to sum up,” says Shinguji. “If that is in fact the case, and the placement of Tojo-sans’ glove was something that was done by her rather than her killer…”

“Then God says we can trust the glove!” says Angie. “And that means we can trust Kirumi’s hands, too! And Kiibo!” She clasps her hands together. “God is being so trusting again—congratulations on not being the culprit, Kiibo!”

He frowns. “Uh, thank you?”

“God says you’re welcome!” she replies.

“Also,” sighs Hoshi. “Let’s stop ignoring that planting precise evidence like blood under someone’s fingernails would be stupid hard unless you were a trained murderer or something.”

Kaede sends a wary glance to Maki out of the corner of her eye. The other girl doesn’t even so much as blink at his words. In the background of Kaede’s now racing thoughts, Kiibo says, “I can assure you I am not.”

“So it’s like I’ve been telling you guys from the beginning,” says Ouma. “Kiiboy’s not that smart.”

“Stop saying that…” Kiibo says, defeat creeping into his voice.

“So the killer’s not Kiiboy, buuuut,” Ouma hums. “I get a second try, right?”

Kaede frowns in confusion, while Momota asks for her, “Second try at what?”

“Guessing the killer, of course!” he says. “Okay, so—new theory—how about this? Everyone loves Tojo-chan, right? And when she died, everyone was sad it wasn’t someone they hated, right?”

“Ouma-kun,” gasps Gonta. “How can you say that? Gonta’s friends with everyone, so he’d be sad if anyone died, and,” his face falters, “and Gonta assumed everyone else felt the same way, too.”

“Well there’s the problem!” says Ouma. “You can’t just assume things like that. And, I guarantee you that more than a few people here were at least a little happy when they found the body that it wasn’t someone they liked more.”

Shirogane covers her mouth with a hand. “What a horrible thing to say—you’re horrible!”

Tenko looks ready to throw him across the courtroom. “Tenko has met many terrible boys before, but this goes beyond even the normal atrocities of being a man.”

“Calm down,” says Hoshi. “Getting angry at each other isn’t going to solve anything. And, even though Ouma’s purposefully phrasing it to instigate you, the point he’s making isn’t wrong.” 

Gonta gives the smaller boy a betrayed look. “Hoshi-kun… when you saw Tojo-san’s body, you…”

He shakes his head. “This is less about me and more about being human. I guess an example would help here,” he fiddles with his cigarette. “Let’s see… say you heard there was a fire in a place where a family member worked. A news report comes out, and you hear that lots of people have died, but then you get a call and here that your family member is perfectly fine. What would your first reaction be?”

“I guess,” says Kaede slowly. “You’d be pretty relieved…” 

“Well, yeah,” says Momota rubbing the back of his head. “That’s kinda the fucking point behind this motive, isn’t it? To you, your family or whoever’s on the video’s way more fucking important than everyone else here…”

“Exactly,” says Hoshi. “So, Gokuhara,” he turns to him, “all Ouma’s saying is stuff we already knew—you’re still friends with everyone, and everyone is still upset about Tojo. Nothing’s changed.”

The taller boy looks startled. “G-Gonta gets it now.” He starts to smile again. “Thank you, Hoshi-kun! Gonta is glad he has a friend like you around.”

Hoshi pulls down his hat. “Don’t mention it.”

“Aw, Hoshi-chan totally ruined my dramatic reveal,” Ouma whines, before huffing and crossing his arms. “It’s going to be completely boring now. Oh well, I guess it can’t be helped.” He folds his arms behind his head. “By the way, my next guess is Iruma-chan.”

“Me!?” she squawks. “What the fuck did I do?”

“Well, like I was trying to say earlier,” he says. “Everyone loved Tojo-chan except for one person, so, that person is the most likely to try and randomly stick a knife in her, right?”

“I wouldn’t stick anything in that frigid, limp-titted, bitch if you paid me!” Iruma says.

Kaede presses her hands to her temples. “Iruma-san, you’re really not making a good case for yourself.” 

“What the fuck ever!” she shouts. “I didn’t do it!” 

“Oh?” Ouma presses a finger to his lips. “Can you prove that?”

_(Present your Argument)_

“I’m not the goddamn killer!” Iruma yells.

“Iruma-san was also out late at night yesterday,” Shinguji offers. “I remember seeing her leave the dorms just after nighttime, and if I recall correctly, I never saw her return.”

“S-so what?” she stutters. “I-I always go out at night!”

Momota scratches the back of his head. “Were you really doing something as dumb as hanging out outside by yourself all fucking night?”

“A-actually I just remembered!” she shouts. “I-I didn’t go to my lab last night. I just, uh, just left the dorm and then came back inside while the gimp wasn’t looking! Didn’t go fucking anywhere all night!”

Ouma laughs. “Man, it’s been a while since I heard a lie that bad.”

_(BREAK)_

Kaede frowns. “Iruma-san, you really shouldn’t tell unnecessary lies like that, especially since you do have an alibi.”

“I-I do!?”

Hoshi sighs. “You’re acting too surprised about that for someone who’s innocent.”

“Iruma-san,” says Kaede. “Shinguji-kun said he saw you leaving right when nighttime started, and you and Kiibo-kun were together for most of the night, right? Do you remember what time you got back to the dorms?”

“It was real fucking late,” she says. “Or real fucking early. I dunno. Real fucking something.”

“I…” says Kiibo, thinking hard. “Believe we returned to the dorms sometime around three or four in the morning.”

“Shit man,” says Momota. “And you guys met up at like eleven or something? That is a long fucking time to spend with Iruma.”

“You guys,” says Yumeno. “Were alone together for four or five hours… what were you doing for that long?”

Iruma cackles. “Well I can tell you what we weren’t doing.”

Kiibo looks uncomfortable. “I believe that is my fault. Iruma-san had to spend quite a bit of time fixing one of my fans. I suppose I let my maintenance of it slip.” 

“Just one of your fans?” asks Tenko. “What did you do to get only one fan dirty enough to cause a malfunction? Tenko doesn’t know a lot about machines but…” she frowns. “That’s strange isn’t it?”

“It is…” says Kaede. “And it just happened to happen the night of Tojo-san’s murder.”

“It,” Gonta tries. “Is probably not a coincidence then? I-is that right?”

“I’d say so,” says Hoshi. “How about it, Iruma? Find anything weird?”

Kiibo turns bright red, and mumbles, “This is so embarrassing…”

Iruma snorts. “I found something real fucking gross.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “Let me tell you, nothing fucking ruins the mood more than openin’ up a robot to clean and finding a shitton of dead bugs crammed into him.”

Gonta gasps. “D-dead bugs? How could something that horrible happen?”

“I would hazard a guess that the appreciation party likely had a hand in it,” says Shinguji. “There were many insects flying around, and I believe Gonta-kun has stated there are no bugs anywhere else, after all.”

“Ah, God says that sounds rights,” says Angie. “Angie also totally ate a bug, so maybe the same thing happened to Kiibo!”

Gonta slumps his shoulders. “Gonta is really sorry about the party…”

“No, no, none of you fucking get it,” says Iruma. “Like, I popped Kiibs’s fan open and there was just like an entire fistful of the little fuckers shoved inside.”

Kaede frowns. “‘A fistful?’”

“The fuck were you guys doing at that party anyway?” Iruma continues. “Did Kiibs end up rolling around on the ground or dive head first into a pile of ‘em or some shit?”

“I can assure you I did no such things,” says Kiibo. “All I did at the party was sit quietly with Tojo-san, and then…” he glances at Momota. “And then I attempted to help catch Momota-kun later, which, ah…”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “You… tried. I guess.” 

“My apologies again,” he responds.

“To stay focused,” says Shinguji. “I believe neither of those activities would result in an abnormality like the one you described. Is that correct?”

“But even if Kiibo did jump head first into a pile of bugs,” says Yumeno absently. “I thought you said it was just one fan? The insect storm was pretty big. Even with my magic I wasn’t able to stop them from getting everywhere.”

Tenko gasps. “So it’s definitely strange that only one of Kiibo-san’s fans would be full of bugs! Yumeno-san, you’re a genius!”

She pauses. Then, with the same blank expression, “Yeah.”

“Ooh, that’s a good point!” says Angie. “Hey, Miu, was there bug paste anywhere else on Kiibo or just in the one spot?”

“B-bug paste?” Gonta echoes, near scandalized at the idea.

“Well, yeah,” says Iruma. “After I found the big problem I had to work him over completely to see if there was any other crap wrong. And I worked him all night long, from top to bottom, every inch—”

“And did you find anything?” asks Kaede. 

“Eh,” she says. “Some shit here and there, but nothing like the spot that made him freak the fuck out. Seriously,” she turns to Kiibo. “You scared the absolute shit out of me last night. Just fucking walking back to my room, minding my own damn business, and suddenly there’s a cracking noise like fucking God slammin’ his car door, and you’re, like two inches from me.”

Kiibo seems to pout. “I was not that close. And I also did not step on a branch like you keep insisting. My path finding skills would never allows for such a mistake.”

“Oh, so you were planning to just fucking sneak up on me?” she says. “Well, thank God for the branch then.”

He frowns. “I don’t think you listened to what I just said.”

“Sooo,” drawls Ouma, looking at his fingernails. “Now that we’ve sufficiently talked in circles about Kiiboy’s bad hygiene, can somebody give me the short version of what was important? I wasn’t listening.”

“You’re actually the worst, aren’t you?” mutters Momota darkly.

Kaede starts thinking, and Ouma sends her another look over Yumeno’s head. “So, like, what’s actually important about Kiiboy? Or is he just looking for attention?”

“I am doing no such thing!” says Kiibo.

“What’s important about Kiibo-kun’s incident,” says Kaede slowly. “Is that… he,” her eyes widen at her own realization. “He was sabotaged. Someone—” she looks out over all of the suddenly nervous face before her. “Someone sabotaged Kiibo-kun, which caused him to suddenly run outside last night. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Sabotage!” Angie gasps, pressing her hands to her cheeks. “Ooh, God says this is a really big clue!”

Kiibo looks taken aback. “Someone… someone purposefully…”

“B-but, Kiibo-kun’s alright now, right?” asks Gonta. “He’s okay, right?”

“I’m,” Kiibo stares blankly ahead. “I’m fine. I just want to know who… who would do such a thing.”

Maki scoffs, and all attention turns to her. “The killer, obviously. It’s ridiculous to think it was anyone else.”

Kaede opens her mouth, then clenches her jaw. Crossing her arms, she begins to think hard again, and the others keep talking. 

_(Present your Argument)_

“The only person who would logically sabotage Kiibo,” says Maki. “Is the killer.”

“Poor Kiibo-kun…” says Gonta.

“Okay, well,” adds Shirogane. “Who would know how to do that in the first place?”

Ouma smiles brightly. “I-R-U-M-A-chan! You’re up!”

She splutters. “I-I-I don’t fucking know anything about computers! Th-the fuck are you talking about?”

“Now that was an impressively bad lie,” muses Shinguji.

“Iruma-san,” says Kiibo. “I don’t want to think you’d do something like this, but you’re the only person here who knew about my fans and the only one who would ever haven gotten close enough to do something like that.”

“K-Kiibo!” she says. “C-c’mon! I-I’d never do something like that! You have to believe me!”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait,” says Kaede. “Kiibo-kun, you’re forgetting. There’s someone else who knew about your fans. In fact, that person told me about them the morning before your incident. And…” she takes a breath, “and they definitely could have gotten close to you.”

He blinks. “Who?”

“Tojo-san,” she says. “Do you remember? Yesterday morning when you were helping clean the kitchen, she mentioned how you needed to be careful about getting too dirty.”

Tenko speaks up. “If it matters, Tenko also remembers seeing Tojo-san helping Kiibo-san pick bugs out of him at the appreciation party, which means she is probably the most likely person to know about such things.”

“I,” says Kiibo. “Did mention that it to her then when I asked for her help…”

“Wait, guys,” says Momota. “Like, that all sounds true and shit, but—uh,” he jerks a thumb at the portrait next to him. “Tojo’s dead. She can’t be the killer.”

“Hmm,” Ouma hums. “That would certainly seem true, yet here we are.”

Shirogane gasps. “D-did Tojo-san come back as a ghost—”

“There’s no fucking ghosts!” shouts Momota a touch too hastily. 

“Ah, what if she did? What if she did?” asks Angie. “After her death, Kirumi’s ghost came back to sabotage Kiibo to get everyone’s attention about what happened to her!”

“Or—to talk about something that’s not impossible,” says Hoshi. “Why don’t we think about a real time when Tojo could’ve done something like that?”

“That might be difficult,” says Shinguji. “If I’m not mistaken, Tojo-san and Kiibo-kun usually spent quite a bit of time together during the day. Which means, assuming she is the one responsible, she could have done it at any time, correct?”

“Nah,” says Yumeno. “I don’t think that’s right.”

Kaede blinks at her. “Yumeno-san?”

“Ah-ha!” says Tenko. “This is the part where Yumeno-san uses her magic to find the truth!” 

The smaller girl frowns. “Tojo wasn’t a mage or anything, so she probably just used a normal sleight of hand, like a fake magician would. ‘Cause if Kiibo noticed, then he would’ve stopped her or something, right?”

Kaede nods. “That’s actually a good point. Kiibo-kun, did you notice Tojo-san acting suspicious or odd at any point when you were cleaning with her?”

“I’m not sure,” he says. “But,” he frowns. “It was likely late in the day… if it was earlier, I would have probably had my malfunction then rather than during nighttime.”

Yumeno taps a finger to her chin. “You two were probably alone or around only one or two other people. The more angles people watch a sleight of hand from, the more likely they are to be caught.” She lowers her hat. “That’s what separates normal magicians from real mages.”

Tenko squeaks. “Ah! Yumeno-san is so cool!”

“Mhmm,” says Angie. “So Angie just finished asking God, and he says that Kirumi definitely did it right before nighttime. What do you think Kiibo?” 

“I… did spend time with her about twenty or so minutes before nighttime began,” he says. “And no one else was around… and we were sweeping up dead bugs in the hall from the appreciation party.” 

“I’m going to assume that settles it then,” says Shinguji. “However, I fear this only raises more questions, does it not?”

Gonta nods. “Why would Tojo-san do something like that? Are,” he looks out at everyone. “Are we sure it was Tojo-san?”

“Well I didn’t fucking do it just to make myself clean it up again,” says Iruma. “Ugh, just thinking about that nasty shit makes me wanna blow chunks.” 

“And Iruma’s the only other person who knew about Kiibo’s fans and had a chance to do something about it,” says Momota. “But… Tojo’s still dead? So,” he frowns. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Ouma hums. “Good question, Momota-chan. Personally, I say we move on and address something Akamatsu-chan’s been hiding from us.”

Kaede blinks. “Hiding?” 

“Earlier, when we were first talking about how Kiiboy’s obviously not the killer, you mentioned finding Tojo-chan’s hidden glove under a mysterious something in a mysterious place,” he smiles. “Care to elaborate on either of those things?”

She reaches up to pull at Saihara’s hat, eyes narrowed. He’s obviously testing her, but Kaede has little clue what on. “Well,” she says, preparing to choose her words carefully, “now that we’re done with random accusations, I suppose we should go back to my first proposal of everyone just sharing what they found. And to set an example,” she stares straight at Ouma. “I’ll go first, starting with the room where we found Tojo-san’s glove.”

His grin doesn’t falter for a second. “The floor is yours, Akamatsu-chan.”

Kaede takes a deep breath. “For those who don’t know, there’s a room that overlooks the pool. After investigating Tojo-san’s body, Tenko-san, Yumeno-san, Kaito, and myself decided to check it out to get an overhead view of the crime scene from the window.”

“Which I did,” says Momota. “Not sure if there was much to the view, but Tojo’s body was, like, right under the window and shit. Oh,” he smacks a fist into his palm, “and there was a knife kind of far from her body, but I guess the killer was pretty fucking careful about not letting it drip blood anywhere since there wasn’t a trail between the two.”

“Well that’s suspicious,” mutters Hoshi. “Why would the killer bother with something like that if they were just going to leave the murder weapon behind?”

“A very good question,” says Shinguji. “Perhaps it has something to do with the blood in the gym? I only investigated there very briefly, but if my memory serves, I remember no trail of blood or footprints leading back out of the gym. If it’s the same in both areas, the two could be connected?”

Gonta furrows his brow. “The killer did the same thing in both places? Does Gonta have that right?”

“Yes,” answers Shinguji. “Though I’m afraid it’s only a tentative theory right now.”

Kaede nods. “I’m still not clear on the specifics, but there might be something to that.”

“Ooh,” says Angie. “A mysterious killer who left the pool and the gym without a trace!”

“They’re probably magic,” says Yumeno. “But it’s not me, though.”

“Of course not, Yumeno-san,” says Tenko. “You would never use your magic for such evil deeds.”

“Yeah,” she agrees. “That’d be a lot of work.”

“That’s… not a good reason to not commit murder,” mumbles Shirogane.

Maki sighs. “It seems no one else will point out the obvious contradiction here, so I suppose I’ll have to.”

Kaede frowns at her. “What contradiction?” 

She shakes her head. “Have you been paying attention to your own evidence? Think clearly about it, and you’ll understand what’s wrong with the lack of blood at the crime scenes.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Remember the state of Tojo’s body,” says Maki.

“Tenko took care of looking closely at her wounds, and Shirogane-san can back Tenko up,” says Tenko. “The Monokuma File was correct in identifying her injuries as multiple cuts along her arms and chest, as well as slit throat.”

“The wound to her throat,” says Shirogane. “Was the killing blow. Ugh, it was so awful. Poor, Tojo-san.”

Yumeno raises her hand. “There was also her hand, but we already talked about that a lot. The blood under her nails and stuff.”

Tenko nods. “That’s right. Tenko has no doubts that Tojo-san tried her very hardest to fight back against whatever terrible boy killed her.”

Momota groans. “Her killer could be a girl, y’know.”

“Tenko doubts it.”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait a minute,” says Kaede. “Harukawa-san’s talking about how we established that Tojo-san definitely fought back against her killer. If that’s the case, why were all the puddles of blood so—I don’t know the right words—neat? I guess?”

“Ah, Angie gets it!” she says. “When there were blood sacrifices on Angie’s island, God always told everyone to be extra careful about cleaning it up, so no one would slip if they happened to walk through it without noticing.”

Maki crosses her arms. “And if you’re in the middle of a fight for your life, it’s unlikely you’re going to pay too much attention to keeping puddles of your own blood neat.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Kaede says, bringing a hand up to her chin in thought. “Also now that I think about it, the pool as the scene for a fight always bothered me. With the no swimming rule, it’s just too risky that someone in a fight like that would fall in.”

Tenko nods. “Tenko also did not see anything else at the pool that indicated there was a struggle there.”

“Perhaps the gym then?” asks Shinguji. “It’s the only other place, correct?”

Kiibo nods. “So would that theory be that Tojo-san was killed in the gym and then carried to the pool?”

“There’s a chance,” says Hoshi. “When I was checking out the gym, I did notice a cut on one of the walls. It wasn’t too big, but it was reasonably close to the blood we found, and it was probably made by a knife or something.” He tilts his head towards Gonta. “Gokuhara and Yonaga can back me up.”

“Gonta also saw it,” he agrees. “It looked like someone tried to stab the wall, but… that was the only thing.”

“Oh, that reminds Angie,” she says. “When Angie was checking out the gym, she thought it’d be a great place for Himiko to put on a magic show!”

Yumeno blinks up at her. “A magic show? I guess I could… do something like that…”

“God says it would be completely amazing,” she cheers. “So that means God also really hopes you’re not the killer, Himiko!”

Yumeno suddenly blanches. “Uh, thanks.”

“D-don’t talk that way to Yumeno-san,” says Tenko. “Especially since there is no doubt that Yumeno-san is not the killer.”

“There’s no doubt?” asks Ouma. “None at all?”

Tenko turns to him. “Tenko believes that there is no chance that Yumeno-san would do something as horrible as murder. She is not that kind of person.”

“So,” he says. “Who here do you think is that kind of person?”

“What?” she says. “You can’t just ask Tenko a question like that—”

“C’mon, Chabashira-chan,” Ouma pleads. “Take a guess about who the killer is! I already tried, so now it’s your turn.”

“Tenko doesn’t—”

“Ouma-kun,” says Kaede. “Whatever you’re doing, knock it—”

He keeps going. “You think it’s a boy, right? And we’ve beaten the Kiiboy horse to death, so who else do you think it could be? If it’s a boy, then you’ve got at least a one in five shot of getting it right!”

“T-Tenko doesn’t know,” she says. 

“I’d like to hear your guess, too,” says Maki. “You investigated the body and this mysterious room Akamatsu keeps alluding to. Surely you have some thoughts of your own.”

Tenko’s sweating, and Kaede desperately thinks of a way to get her out of whatever trap she’s being lured into. “Harukawa-san, Ouma-kun,” she says. “Stop ganging up on her. You have no reason to suspect—”

“I do though,” says Maki. “I understand you’ve purposefully been avoiding it, but the fact of the matter is we found a motive video meant for Chabashira hidden in Tojo’s apron.” 

A silence falls over the students. Maki says, “Do you all understand now? Akamatsu knew this whole time and has purposefully been hiding evidence. This is exactly like what happened with Saihara, isn’t it?” Kaede barely resists flinching. “Chabashira’s the killer, and Akamatsu’s protecting her. She’s trying to get us all killed. Again.”

Kaede takes a deep breath. “Tenko-san is not the killer.”

“Th-that’s right,” says Tenko. “Tenko never even saw her motive video. Someone is framing her.”

“Then who’s video did you get?” Ouma asks tilting his head. “I watched a lot of the videos during the appreciation party, but the one from your room just happened to be missing.”

“That’s just a coincidence,” says Tenko. “Tenko had her video somewhere safe where no terrible boys could get their hands on it.”

Iruma frowns. “But why’d you do something like that?” She grins. “Was there something dirty on it? Was it your lesbian orgy?” 

“She just fucking said the video she got wasn’t hers,” says Momota. 

Maki gives him a sideways look. “And you just trust her word?”

“I do,” he says slamming his fists together. “And I saw it with my own fucking eyes, so I know what the hell I’m talking about.”

Yumeno speaks up, “You saw the video Chabashira got, too?” She blinks at her own words. “Oops.”

Shinguji raises his eyebrows. “How curious. Yumeno-san, were you also privy to the video Chabashira-san had?”

“Uh,” she says, glancing to Tenko and then Kaede for guidance. “Maybe.”

“Well then,” says Shinguji. “The answer to this problem is simple. If Chabashira-san received a different video, all she needs to do is show us. Would that not be adequate evidence?”

Tenko shifts nervously, eyes darting to Hoshi and back to Kaede. “Tenko… would prefer not to do that.”

“Oh,” says Kiibo. “That gave me an idea. If Chabashira-san’s video was found on Tojo-san’s body, assuming the video is not Tojo-san’s own, does that mean someone here is missing a video player?”

Gonta nods. “Gonta thinks so…”

“And that person is most likely to be the killer,” says Hoshi. “Am I following you?”

“Yes,” says Kiibo with a nod of his head. “So if we have everyone simply presents their video players, whoever is missing one is likely the culprit.”

Kaede pales. “Ah, I’m afraid that won’t work since I left mine in my room. Too bad.”

“Uh, me, too!” Momota shouts quickly.

Kaede shoots a quick look to Yumeno, and with her prompting she says, “I… also forgot mine. It was kind of a pain to carry around.”

Angie clasps her hands. “Angie isn’t carrying hers either! God said it would be safe in Angie’s room so she just left it there.”

“But… Ouma-kun broke into all our rooms earlier,” says Shirogane. 

“Tenko also does not have her video player on her,” she adds in quickly. “But that does not mean she is suspicious.”

Kaede winces at Tenko’s defense of herself. She looks out across the room. Herself, Momota, Yumeno, Angie, and Tenko made five. If she could get even more, then maybe… Kaede looks up at Gonta, and says, “Ah, Gonta-kun, before we got on the elevator, you wanted to ask me about bringing your video because you left it in your room. But we had to hurry, so you don’t have it either, right?”

He looks at her openmouthed for a moment, and Kaede reaches out to rest a hand on his arm. He looks down at her small hand, clinging to him for protection and he very slowly says, “Th-that’s right. Gonta’s kind of an idiot, and he… just happened to forget.”

Kaede can feel Hoshi’s eyes boring into her from across the room, but gives everyone else the biggest smile she can when she says. “Well, that’s six people who don’t have one here at the very least.”

“I suppose,” says Kiibo. “That showing the videos wouldn’t accomplish much then… especially since I also don’t have mine, either.”

Ouma huffs. “Hey, Kiiboy, wasn’t this your dumb robot idea to begin with?”

“W-well, yes!” he protests. “But my inner voice told me it made sense, even if it wouldn’t work directly for me.”

“‘Inner voice?’” echoes Angie. “Ooh, Kiibo, is God talking to you, too?”

“I… don’t know,” he says frowning. “Maybe.”

“Kiibo being touched by God aside,” says Hoshi darkly. “We’re still not a step closer to clearing Chabashira’s name.” He says his words directly to Kaede. “Are we?”

“No,” says Kaede. “But I won’t give up until we do.”

“Tenko will not give up fighting either,” she says. 

Yumeno says dully, “I’ll also… something for Chabashira.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“So,” says Yumeno. “Chabashira did a lot during the investigation, right? The killer wouldn’t do that… probably.”

“A smart killer would help,” says Maki. “In fact, they’d position themselves in key locations and drive other people away from important crime scenes to control evidence. Both things Chabashira did immediately.”

“That is just a coincidence,” says Tenko. “Tenko may have done things like that, but it was for entirely different reasons.”

“I was there for the body investigation, too,” says Shirogane. “And the whole thing with the video player was… certainly suspicious.”

Ouma grins. “Then that settles it! Especially since Chabashira-chan has no alibi!” 

_(BREAK)_

Kaede shouts, “Wait, that’s wrong! Tenko-san does have an alibi! She and I were together the whole night, from right after nighttime began to this morning—it couldn’t have been her!”

“You were… together the _whole night_?” Yumeno repeats. She pulls her hat down. “Like, together-together?”

“I fucking knew Chabashitra was a lesbian!” shouts Iruma, spit flying from her mouth. 

“N-nothing happened between us, Yumeno-san!” Tenko quickly amends. “Akamatsu-san and Tenko simply stayed up most of the night planning for the video screening. When we realized what time it was, we decided Tenko might as well sleep in Akamatsu-san’s room.”

“Oh, Chabashira-chan, you should be more careful!” Ouma scolds. “Spending the night alone with Akamatsu-chan in her room is dangerous!” 

Kaede frowns. “How is that possibly dangerous?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he says. “You’ve got that killer vibe to you. Personally I’m surprised this isn’t Chabashira-chan’s trial!”

“I would never hurt Tenko-san,” Kaede snaps. “Don’t even joke about that.” 

He tilts his head. “Who said it was a joke?”

“Anyway,” Hoshi sighs. “The point is that Akamastu’s Chabashira’s alibi, right?”

Maki shakes her head. “Like I’ve been saying, that doesn’t mean anything though.”

Kaede blinks. “Huh? What are you talking about? If we were together the whole time—”

“You said that in the last trial with Saihara,” Maki says. “And you almost got everyone executed. You’ve already proven that you’re willing to kill everyone here to let someone else escape. Who says you’re not doing that with Chabashira?”

Kaede clenches her fists in a near desperate attempt to stop herself from biting back, telling Maki she doesn’t know anything. But then Kaede remembers who she’s talking to, and she swallows her pride. She has to clear Tenko’s name before she can get herself killed by insulting the Ultimate Assassin. 

Shirogane nods, a guilty look on her face. “That is true… sorry Akamatsu-san,” she says. “Well, ah, do we have anything else besides Akamatsu-san’s word that they were together?”

“You have Tenko’s word!” Tenko responds.

“I believe,” Shinguji begins, “that Shirogane-san wanted to ask if we have the word of anyone who is not currently being suspected.” 

Kaede closes her eyes. Tenko’s still sweating, and Kaede clenches her fists when she reminds herself that she is absolutely not going to let this trial end like the last one. She lets out a deep breath and thinks—what proof does she have that she and Tenko were together?

_(Present your Argument)_

“I want to believe you,” says Shirogane. “I really do, but what evidence is there besides Akamatsu-san’s word?”

“And we know we can’t trust that,” Maki says. “Not after what happened last time.”

“Chabashira also said they were together,” replies Yumeno. “So I believe she didn’t do it.”

“Y-Yumeno-san,” Tenko stutters, hand to her heart. 

“Ah, this is a trial though,” Kiibo begins. “And though I do not like doubting my friends, we simply should not take a suspect at their word.”

“Ooh that was really harsh, Kiiboy!” says Ouma. “Does that mean you think Chabashira-chan is a liar?”

“D-do not put words in my mouth!” Kiibo shouts back.

“Don’t worry Kiibs, I gottcha,” Iruma says. “You’re saying we can’t fucking trust them because nobody saw them leaving to go scissor.”

“Exactly!” Kiibo responds. He frowns. “But I do not believe a pair of scissors was involved.”

Kaede’s eyes flick open. 

_(BREAK)_

“Iruma-san, that’s wrong,” she says. “Before Tenko-san came to my room, we were at training with Kaito and Shinguji-kun saw us return to the dorms. They can confirm that we were together for almost the whole night, and that we went to my room together.”

“Oh yeah,” says Momota. “That’s right. I even remember walking you guys to Akamatsu’s door now that I think about it.”

“Just like a dumb boy to not say that until now,” Tenko huffs.

“Hey, I’m proving you innocent!” 

“Yes,” Tenko responds. “And you should have done so earlier!”

“The point is,” Kaede interrupts. “Kaito and Shinguji-kun both saw us.” She sighs, fiddling with the brim of Saihara’s hat. “Do you guys believe me now?”

Shinguji waves a finger. “I’m afraid it’s still too early to clear Chabashira-san of suspicion if that’s what you are saying.” 

“I just said I saw them,” Momota says. “And you saw them, too. How does not prove they were together?”

“Oh, Angie thinks she gets is,” she says. “Korekiyo, you mean, like, Tenko and Kaede could have left the room after you and Kaito went to bed.”

“So even if though I did see them go to Akamatsu-san’s room it doesn’t mean they stayed there, yes,” Shinguji concludes. 

“Ah-ha! Angie did get it!” she cheers. “That means Tenko did do it! Yay!”

“Th-that’s not true!” Tenko shouts at roughly the same time Yumeno says, distressed “Angie—”

Kaede feels herself slowly begin to panic. Tenko didn’t do it. She knows Tenko didn’t do it. There has to be something. There has to be _something._

Ouma hums, and he sounds so close and so distant when he says, “Real shame there’s nothing we have to pinpoint what time the murder took place.” And Kaede swears he’s speaking only to her when he says, “That’d be a real help, wouldn’t it?”

Kaede reaches for Saihara’s hat, mind racing through all their evidence when she suddenly remembers, “Wait, everyone,” she says. “I think… I think I know the evidence that proves the murder happened while Tenko-san and I were together at training.”

Maki seems unconcerned. “And that would be?”

“The places where we found evidence. One of them was the gym,” she says. “And since it’s against the rules to go into the gym—”

“Whatever happened there had to happen before nighttime, at which point we were already all together,” says Momota, smacking himself in the forehead. “I remember now.”

Tenko lets out a sigh of relief, but says, “It would have been nice if you remembered that earlier…”

“H-hey, Kaede also remembered it just now!”

“So,” says Yumeno carefully. “Does that mean Chabashira’s not suspicious anymore?”

Maki lets out a sigh. “I suppose so. And,” she absently plays with her hair, seemingly debating her next words. “I also have a bit of evidence that the murder took place in early in the night.”

Kaede blinks. “You do?”

She nods. “Yes, but I think I’ll keep it to myself a while longer.”

Hoshi shakes his head. “Now that’s suspicious.”

“You can doubt me if you want,” she says. “It won’t accomplish much, but I can’t stop you.”

“Sooo,” says Ouma. “Now that we’re down yet another suspect, I think it’s time Akamatsu-chan finally fesses up to where her secret room full of evidence is.”

Kaede frowns. “The room where we looked down at the pool?”

“Yup,” he answers. “You keep talking about it, but you’ve yet to say where it actually is, right?”

“That’s… true,” she says. “I didn’t think it mattered too much, but,” she looks to Momota for reassurance and then quickly to Hoshi. “It’s in the back of Hoshi-kun’s research lab.”

Iruma slams both hands on her podium. “Hey! Why does the blowjob midget get a second room to his research lab?”

Hoshi gives her a dark look. “You want to rethink that nickname?”

She cowers. “I-it was j-just a little j-joke, c’mon…”

“Oh wait,” says Angie, puffing out her cheek. “Even God didn’t tell Angie about a secret room.”

Kaede shrugs. “Not a lot of people knew—Kaito and I discovered it while we were exploring the school, and,” she frowns. “It’s not a very nice place, so we just never really brought it up.”

“But,” Angie continues. “God says there was totally a lot of evidence in there, right? Wouldn’t that mean that the killer totally knew about it before hand?”

Shinguji nods at her. “That is a very interesting observation, Angie-san. And, if I may continue it,” he says. “Wouldn’t that now paint out dear Hoshi-kun in a rather suspicious light?”

Hoshi glares. “I never set foot in there. Just because it was my research lab doesn’t mean I have anything to do with what happens in there.”

“Um,” says Yumeno, pressing a finger to her chin. “But not many people knew about it, right? And while we were looking around, Akamatsu said the killer probably was betting on people not checking there… so it had to be someone who knew about it before hand.”

He shakes his head. “Still doesn’t mean it was me.”

“But you are the most suspicious now,” says Ouma. “Aren’t you, Hoshi-chan?”

“I already told you,” Hoshi says. “I don’t do stuff like that anymore.”

“Aw, c’mon, Hoshi-chan,” Ouma persists. “Can’t you think of a better defense than that? Especially since you were the one pushing to see your motive video the hardest?”

Hoshi looks at him and takes in a deep breath. Then he pulls his hat down, and Kaede has never seen him look so exhausted. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” he says finally. “I know I don’t have an alibi, but I still never set foot in there, but,” he shakes his head. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m… tired of fighting.”

Kaede stares at him with wide eyes as he suddenly seems as so much smaller than normal, “Hoshi-kun—”

“Then Gonta will fight for you!” shouts Gonta suddenly next to her.

Hoshi looks up at him. “Gokuhara?”

“If Hoshi-kun cannot fight for himself,” he says. “Then Gonta will do his very best to fight for him! Because Gonta believes in Hoshi-kun.”

Hoshi looks genuinely bewildered. “You… do?”

Gonta nods. “Gonta knows Hoshi-kun has had a hard past, but he also knows that Hoshi-kun would never harm one of his friends! Gonta isn’t,” he seems to falter slightly. “Very smart… and he doesn’t know what was in the hidden room, but he does know that Hoshi-kun is his friend! And Gonta is going to protect his friend, no matter what.”

Hoshi is stunned into absolute silence, looking with wide eyes at Gonta. 

Kaede looks between them and makes a decision to make a leap of faith. “I believe in you, too, Hoshi-kun,” she says, pumping her fists. “And I’m going to fight for you, too.” She looks to Gonta. “Gonta-kun and I promised we’d protect out friends, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, this was a dialog heavy chapter. Also the image (if it works like I hope it will) is my meager photoshop skills at work to make an elevator picture using the game as a base. Not sure if I'll try inserting other images, but I hope to have the elevator picture be a recurring trend.
> 
> *Edit: alright picture was not working at first posting but should be now!


	8. Trial II

Kaede steadies herself in the face of her own blind belief. Even without looking directly at him, Kaede can sense the deep fire-y conviction burning in Gonta’s eyes as he launches into the first defense that comes to him. “It is impossible,” he says. “For Hoshi-kun to be the killer. And Gonta has many reasons, but the most important is that Hoshi-kun is not the kind of person who would ever hurt his friends!”

Her pulse is racing, in fear, in exhilaration, in the strange fact that she was finally living up to her own words about trust. 

Ouma’s eyes twinkle. “But Hoshi-chan’s killed before, right? Are you saying he was lying about that?”

Gonta falters. “N-no. Gonta knows that, and Gonta,” he finds himself again, “Gonta also knows that Hoshi-kun had a good reason for doing what he did. Killing Tojo-san is a completely different situation and something he would never do.”

“His reasons don’t matter,” Ouma’s voice drops in volume. “A killer’s a killer. And in this killing game,” his smile turns cruel, “good reasons and bad reasons don’t mean anything. Both result in the deaths of everyone here.”

“G-Gonta knows that, too, but—”

“But what?” and the darkness around Ouma turns out like a light switch. “C’mon, I know you guys aren’t very smart, but you have to have been paying attention to that rule. Man, you guys are all so bad at this game!”

Kaede finally finds her voice. “None of this is a game to us,” she says. “And Hoshi-kun knows exactly what would happen to everyone here, and he’s not the kind of person who would ever risk something like that.”

Ouma gives her a long, searching look, seemingly stunned into silence, just long enough for Gonta to get another word in. “That’s right. Hoshi-kun would never hurt people he knew did nothing wrong, and he would never hurt us.”

But Kaede can tell Ouma isn’t listening to a word Gonta said, still staring straight at her. Kaede feels herself begin to sweat under his gaze and the weight of the secret lingering between the two of them, when Ouma, eyes still locked on her says, “How about it, Hoshi-chan? You’re the one on trial after all.”

Hoshi frowns. “I… don’t know.”

“Hoshi-kun…?” Gonta looks heartbroken. 

“Sorry,” he mumbles pulling his hat down. “I don’t know. He’s right. A killer’s a killer. That’s just part of who I am now, so—”

“What the hell are you saying!?” shouts Momota. “What the hell is your goddamn problem?”

Hoshi just blinks at him. “What?”

Momota throws his hands in the air. “Gonta’s arguing his fucking heart out for you, and that’s all you have to say?!”

Gonta’s eyes widen. “Momota-kun, it’s alright, Gonta just wants to help, and if Hoshi-kun isn’t convinced, then Gonta just needs to try harder. So please don’t get mad at Hoshi-kun, for—”

“No!” he yells. “I’m fucking angry about this!” He points a finger at Hoshi. “You! You’re not the goddamn culprit. I know you’re not, Kaede knows you’re not, and fucking Gonta knows you’re not, so get off your ass and say something!”

Hoshi frowns. “I already said I don’t know what you want me to say. I didn’t kill Tojo. Happy?”

Momota lets out an aggravated groan. “You don’t get it, do you? Fucking Ouma pointed out the rules, and you still don’t get it. You’re not the killer, but if you don’t say a word to defend yourself, the real one’s going to get away, and everyone here will die.” He jerks his head towards Gonta. “Maybe you don’t care about your life, but all the people who believe in you will die, too.”

Hoshi opens his mouth, before clenching his jaw. 

“That won’t happen,” says Gonta. “Because Gonta already said he will fight for Hoshi-kun, and he won’t give up until his innocence is proven. So there’s no need to worry about that, and,” he turns to Momota, “and everyone should stop being mad at Hoshi-kun.”

Kaede looks between the two of them. “Hey, Hoshi-kun,” she says, soft voice strong amidst the yelling. “You said you wanted a reason to live or to keep fighting alongside us, right? Maybe even someone who believed in you?” She jerks her head towards Gonta. “Think you found it yet?”

Hoshi stares with wide eyes. Gonta just seems confused. “What did Hoshi-kun find?” he asks almost too earnestly. 

Kaede holds her breath, then Hoshi lowers his hat with just the slightest smile on his face. “I’ll tell you later, big guy,” he says. “The point Akamatsu’s making though is that I’m an idiot. But,” he turns to the rest of the group with a newfound determination. “I’m an idiot who had nothing to do with Tojo’s murder.”

“Well that’s nice,” Ouma says, looking to his fingernails. “You still don’t really have any proof, but it’s super nice, huh?”

“I hate to agree,” says Kiibo hesitantly. “But Ouma-kun’s right in that we still need evidence to prove Hoshi-kun’s innocence.”

“I know,” says Kaede. “And I also think I know what will prove it.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Gonta believes Hoshi-kun is innocent!” 

“But there was vital evidence in Hoshi-kun’s lab,” adds Shinguji. “Was there not?”

Yumeno taps her chin. “Not very many people knew about his lab in the first place… and Hoshi was one of them…”

“And any of those people could be the killer,” says Hoshi. “Doesn’t mean it was me.”

“I guess so,” says Yumeno dully. “But why would the killer go there in the first place anyway? Did they really like tennis?”

“I have a feeling you are getting a bit off topic, Yumeno-san,” scolds Shinguji.

Tenko gasps. “Do not speak down to Yumeno-san!”

“Chabashira,” says Momota. “I get that you like her, but _c’mon._ Even you can’t believe liking tennis has anything to do with the murder.”

Yumeno raises her hand. “And maybe they went to the pool afterwards because they really like swimming.”

“Y-Yumeno-san, please…”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait,” says Kaede. “We’re getting a bit off topic, but if you think about the evidence we found in the hidden room in Hoshi-kun’s lab, there’s a really clear difference between Hoshi-kun and the culprit.”

Momota just looks at her. “Okay, I know I was there, but I’m fucking drawing a blank.”

Yumeno hums. “I think I have an idea… but you should say what you think first.”

Kaede suppresses her sigh. “Alright,” she says. “One of the key things we found in Hoshi-kun’s talent lab was that the net was taken down. And it was taken down in a way that someone who knew a lot about tennis wouldn’t do.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Momota. “One of the cords was completely hacked through, right? I remember when we were looking at it, it seemed like whoever took it down was having a real fucking hard time and then figured out what the hell they were doing halfway through or something.”

“Right,” Kaede nods. “And someone as knowledgeable and experienced with tennis as Hoshi-kun…”

“Wouldn’t do something like that!” finishes Gonta. “Which means Hoshi-kun is innocent!”

“Exactly,” says Kaede. “And a killer cleaning up a crime scene probably wouldn’t waste time like that if they knew what they were doing in the first place.”

Hoshi bears something resembling a smile. “I’d say that’s true.”

“Oh,” says Yumeno. “I was gonna say Hoshi’s too short to reach Tojo’s neck…”

Tenko nods. “Tenko believes that is also true.”

Hoshi frowns. “That’s probably also true, I guess…”

“Oh, oh!” Ouma chirps. “And Hoshi-chan’s super strong and fast, so if he wanted to kill someone like Tojo-chan, there probably wouldn’t have even been a struggle, right?”

Hoshi just sighs. 

Kaede turns to him. “Ouma-kun? Why are you helping?”

“Because Hoshi-chan’s obviously not the killer,” he says. “Man, you’re soooo slow, Akamatsu-chan. We’ll never find the real killer at this rate.”

“You’re the one who’s been accusing him this whole time!” Kaede says, jabbing a finger over Yumeno’s head. 

“Yeah,” he rolls his eyes. “‘Cause I wanted to see how the real killer would react, and you totally went and ruined it.” 

Angie clasps her hands together. “Oh, hey guys! Angie just thought of something! Kokichi’s been leading the conversation a lot, so what if he’s the killer?”

“I’m not,” says Ouma blankly. 

“Oh, guess he’s not!” she amends. “God’s taking a nap right now, so Angie’s just guessing.”

Hoshi frowns at her. “The hell are you believing him so easily for?”

Momota sighs. “God, I hope Ouma’s the killer.”

“What?” Ouma sniffles. “My beloved Momota-chan’s being so mean to me…”

“Shut up!” he shouts. “And I told you to quit fucking calling me that!”

“Angie has a really good feeling about Kokichi,” she says. “God says he’s trustworthy?”

Shirogane says, “I thought you said God was taking a nap?”

“Angie-san’s God seems to sleep and wake when it pleases him,” replies Shinguji. “However he stills seems to have a shockingly high accuracy rate for various predictions.”

“So Angie will ask the next question, okay?” she says. “So, so, so, Angie wants to know more about the secret room. Like why was the net taken down?” 

Kaede crosses her arms. “That’s a good question. Part of it was also wet, which means the killer either washed it in the sink in Hoshi-kun’s research lab, or part of it went into the pool.”

Maki raises her eyebrows. “There was a sink?”

“Yeah,” says Kaede. “Does that matter?”

She turns away. “The killer probably could have washed away blood easily then, if they had access to it, and…” she brings her hand to her chin. “… That likely explains that…”

“Yo, Harukmaki,” says Momota. “You think of something?”

She glares at him. “Don’t call me that. And I simply figured something out.”

“Feel like sharing?” he prompts. 

Maki frowns. “It’s nothing earth shattering. However,” she turns back to Kaede. “The presence of a sink is.”

Angie presses her hands to her cheeks. “A sink is earth shattering!”

“Um, wait,” says Shirogane. “If there was sink, I have a question. If the killer had access to something that could clean up blood… why would they leave a bloody knife?”

Iruma snorts. “Well, the killer’s obviously a fucking idiot, right? Everyone knows you throw out all the bloody shit after—”

“Iruma-san,” interrupts Kaede. “I really do not want to know where you’re going with that, so let’s just focus on Shirogane-san’s question.”

“I-it—I wasn’t gonna make a sex joke!” she protests. “It was a peri—”

“I agree with Akamatsu-chan,” Ouma smiles. “The pig should shut up.”

“St-stop calling me a fucking pig!” she shouts, before suddenly doing an about face in demeanor. “U-unless, you, y’know—I could be kind of it tha—”

“Okay!” says Kaede clapping her hands together. “That is enough of that.”

Momota sighs. “Seriously. Hey, Shirogane, what was your question, again? I kinda forgot…”

Shirogane frowns. “I… don’t really want to ask it again now.”

“Ahh, boo,” says Ouma. “Looks like Iruma-chan went and ruined everything.”

“I didn’t—”

“I believe Shirogane-san’s question,” says Shinguji. “Was about the presence of a murder weapon when the killer had the ability to dispose of evidence. Is that correct?”

She nods. “That sounds about right.”

“Then let me continue,” he says. “I, personally, have two theories—either the killer did not have as much access to the sink as we are assuming or the murder weapon itself is simply unimportant.”

“Also,” says Tenko. “Do not forget that the knife was down at the pool and the sink was up in Hoshi-san’s research lab. Carrying a bloody weapon all the way around the school would likely be something not even the least competent killer would do.”

“So,” says Kiibo. “In that theory, the killer simply left the knife because it was too risky to even chance disposing of, but,” he frowns. “Why was some evidence seemingly removed then? Like whatever happened to the tennis net?”

Kaede furrows her brow, thinking hard. “I’d argue the tennis net wasn’t disposed of at all. I mean, anyone who walked into Hoshi-kun’s lab would have realized it was missing and could have found it in the next room. The killer probably just wasn’t that concerned with cleaning it up since so few people would have thought to go there.”

“But, Akamatsu-san,” says Shinguji. “Didn’t you say the net was wet? Would that not indicate the culprit attempted to clean it?” 

“Also,” says Gonta. “Gonta still isn’t sure why the net is important… Akamatsu-san said the culprit spent time taking it down so it has to be… but what was it used for?”

“That’s also a good question,” says Kaede. “But… between the net and the hidden room, and the state of the crime scene at the pool,” she straightens Saihara’s hat. “I’m beginning to piece together a theory about how the crime took place.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Only some of the evidence at the crime scene,” says Shinguji, “was properly disposed of. The killer likely assumed the rest was inconsequential.” 

“Dunno about that,” says Momota. “A murder weapon seems pretty fucking consequential to me.”

“The killer probably wanted to get rid of it,” says Tenko. “But they did not have access to the sink.”

Yumeno hums. “The sink in the hidden room and the crime scene are pretty far away from each other. You’d have to run all the way around the school to get rid of evidence… and that’s a lot of running…”

“And it would also involve moving evidence covered in blood,” says Shinguji. “It would be rather unfortunate for the killer if someone happened to stumble upon them when they were doing such things, if they did in fact use the sink in Hoshi-kun’s lab.”

Momota scratches the back of his head. “Right… Is there really not a more convenient place to get rid of evidence?” 

Yumeno points at him. “The killer probably used magic to transport stuff up through the window!” She frowns. “But it’s still not me, though.”

_(BREAK)_

“Everyone,” says Kaede. “I think… I know the answer to this problem. What if… the murder didn’t take place in the pool?”

“I believe we discussed this earlier,” says Shinguji. “Does that mean you think it happened in the gym?” 

Angie jumps up. “We did say those were the most likely places right? So which is it?” She leans to one side. “The pool?” She leans towards the other. “Or the gym?”

“Neither,” says Kaede. “What makes the most sense… is that the fight and the murder took place in the hidden room in the back of Hoshi-kun’s lab.”

“I see,” says Kiibo. “That would account for the lack of signs of struggle we found in the pool.”

Hoshi fiddles absently with his cigarette, eyes narrowed in thought. “There was one sign of a fight in the gym and the blood, but not much else,” he pockets his cigarette. “Also with nighttime approaching, you probably wouldn’t have a lot of time to fight or clean up evidence before getting kicked out.” 

“In the hidden room,” Tenko says. “Tenko does not recall seeing much damage to the room, however the killer had the ability to easily clean up blood there, and the room is generally made of stone and tile, which are harder to leave identifiable scratch marks against than the wooden walls of the gym.”

“And,” says Kaede. “Remember that the killer would have to return to their room for the night, which would involve walking around the school. They’d probably want to clean themselves up a bit first before doing that, just in case they did happen to run into someone.”

“Oh yeah,” says Yumeno. “And I also remember that when we checked the towels and stuff in the pool, none of them looked used… so if they did clean the blood off of them, they probably didn’t do it there.”

Gonta brings a hand to his chin. “That all makes sense… but when did the killer and Tojo-san go to the pool then? That’s where Tojo-san’s body was, so… they had to have gone there at some point, right?”

Shinguji nods. “That point does present a bit of problem, however. We have three locations where the crime took place, and if Akamatsu-san’s reasoning is correct, that would mean the scene of the fight and the place the killer used to dispose of evidence is a different place than where we found the body, which is a bit odd, is it not?”

“Oh, that’s right,” says Shirogane. “Would that mean the killer moved the body all the way from Hoshi-kun’s lab down to the pool?”

Kiibo frowns. “It can’t be that simple. If moving a bloody weapon around would attract too much attention, moving a body is simply is out of the question.”

“So Tojo-san had to be killed at the pool then,” says Shinguji. “Is that correct?”

Kiibo crosses his arms, looking dissatisfied. “It’s… the only thing I can think of right now, but something about that is bothering me.”

“Me, too,” Momota agrees. “‘Cause if shit did happen at the pool, and they couldn’t walk around the school after the murder, then what? Did the killer fucking climb up the wall to get to Hoshi’s lab?”

“No,” says Kaede. “It’s the opposite. I still think the murder took place in Hoshi-kun’s talent lab, and I do think they moved Tojo-san’s body from there down to the pool.”

“Tenko is still not sure how the killer would do that without being noticed,” says Tenko. “But, if Kaede-san is right and the killer purposefully moved Tojo-san’s body to the pool, would that mean everything we discovered at the crime scene was purposefully planted there by the killer?”

“Whoa-whoa, wait,” says Momota. “ _Everything_ was fucking planted? Does that mean we can’t trust anything there?”

Maki sighs. “I don’t think Akamastu’s wrong, but that’s a pretty big leap in logic.” Her cold eyes turn on Kaede. “If you want us to believe your theory, then answer this: how did the killer move the body?” 

“And God says they definitely didn’t just carry it!” says Angie. 

Kaede tugs on the brim of Saihara’s hat. “I think… the most logical explanation is that they used the window connecting the two rooms, right?” she gives her classmates a once over. “It’s the simplest solution.”

“And you know what they say about the simplest solution!” says Ouma.

“Uh, what?” asks Yumeno.

“It’s usually right!” adds Shirogane. “Oh, unless you’re playing a puzzle game—then it’s usually a red herring, and the culprit is the person you’d least expect, but then you start getting savvy to that and begin to suspect the people who are the least suspicious, and—”

“So the window’s suspicious,” says Hoshi. “It makes sense that if the killer was up in my talent lab that they could just throw stuff down. The question is why though.”

Tenko frowns. “Wait. That doesn’t sound right.”

Hoshi glances over to her. “Something wrong?”

She nods. “Yes. Tenko investigated Tojo-san’s body, and she had no wounds that indicated she had fallen.”

“I did not investigate the body,” adds Shinguji. “But I recall the Monokuma File not indicating anything about injuries one would get from being thrown out a window.”

“Wouldn’t that also leave a much bigger blood splat?” asks Angie. “Ooh, ooh, and God just reminded Angie that Maki said Kirumi had a motive video on her! If she fell, wouldn’t the motive video have been damaged?”

“And that is against the rules,” says Shinguji. “Very good observation, Angie-san.”

She smiles. “It was all God’s doing.”

Kaede frowns. How did the killer move the body? _Why_ did the killer move the body? 

“So,” says Ouma. “What do you say, Akamatsu-chan? Have you connected your own dots yet?”

“My own… ‘dots?’” Kaede parrots. 

He grins. “You’ve already said it. Can’t you find the answers you’ve already given yourself?”

Momota asks, “The hell are you talking about?”

Ouma shushes him. “Not now. I’m trying to have a conversation with Akamatsu-chan. I mean, I would normally rather talk to my beloved Momota-chan any day of the week, buuuut I have the feeling she’s on the edge of something important.” He smiles. “You understand.”

“I told you,” he huffs. “To knock it off with that shit.”

“Hey, Kaito,” says Kaede, mind racing. “Can you be quiet for a second? I’m trying to think.”

“Wha—you, too?” he shouts. “Kaede—”

“Momota-san,” says Tenko. “Kaede-san asked you to be quiet.”

Momota throws his hands in the air. “This is absolute bullshit.”

Ouma laughs. “Wow, Momota-chan, looks like you got rejected, too.”

“Okay, I’ve really fucking had it up to here with you—”

“Momota-san!” Tenko scolds. “Quiet!”

“Argh!”

They bicker. Kaede thinks.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Quit telling me,” says Momota. “To shut up!”

“You are not being helpful to the conversation,” says Tenko. “Unless you have a useful theory on how Tojo-san’s body was moved, please refrain from speaking.”

“Okay, okay, fine,” Momota says. “But what about him?” he jabs a finger towards Ouma. “He hasn’t said anything useful!”

“Oh?” Ouma presses a finger to his lip. “But I have. I never got a look at Hoshi-chan’s lab, but Akamatsu-chan apparently got to see everything. And there’s something she mentioned that could definitely explain a thing or two.”

Momota frowns. “There was something in there… that was used to move Tojo’s body? Well now that I think about it,” he rubs the back of his head. “Her body was like right under the fucking window, so they didn’t move it very far… just kinda dropped it, maybe.”

“Now that is a useful thing to say,” says Tenko. 

“Yup!” Ouma cheers. “Looks like Momota-chan is useful for something, after all.” 

_(BREAK)_

Momota’s about to launch into another fight, when Kaede quickly cuts him off. “That’s right!” she says. “Tojo-san’s body wasn’t thrown, it was carefully placed. And the killer did it without leaving the hidden room.”

“Gonta is confused,” he says. “How could the culprit place a body without going down to the pool?”

“Did they use magic?” Yumeno asks. “‘Cause that sounds like something you would need magic for…”

“No,” says Kaede. “The killer moved the body using the tennis net. That’s why it was taken down, and that’s why it was wet.”

Iruma gasps. “The net? How the fuck would a net move a body?” She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “I mean, the great Iruma Miu could probably invent a net that could automatically move weights like that.”

“But you’re not the culprit,” says Ouma. “So it doesn’t matter.”

“H-hey, you can’t just—”

“Here’s what happened,” says Kaede. “The murder took place in Hoshi-kun’s research lab where the killer could easily dispose of whatever evidence they needed, but to hide the scene of the crime, they took down the net and used it to lower the body through the window and down to the pool. Also,” she straightens her hat, confidence surging through her anew. “You’d have to be pretty strong to do it, but if you placed the body in the middle of the net and carefully fed more through the window to slowly lower it, you could move a body without damaging or disturbing it.”

Momota smacks a fist into his palm. “And when you have it placed on the ground where you want, if you just let one end go to pick the net back up, it’d probably fall into the pool or something, right?”

Kaede nods. “And then at least half of it would get wet, more if the killer washed the blood off after bringing it back into the room to hide it.”

“I see,” says Kiibo. “And if that is the case, would that mean both Tojo-san and the killer never went to the pool in the first place?”

“That’s what I’m beginning to suspect,” says Kaede. “And that would also mean that the knife we found was likely thrown from the window or moved in a similar way.”

Yumeno drawls, “Does that mean I was right when I found the knife? It was just planted by the killer?”

“Ooh, ooh,” says Angie, waving a hand in the air. “Does that also mean the knife wasn’t the murder weapon then? Since the killer wanted us to find it?”

“Tenko isn’t sure about that,” she says. “From the injuries Tenko found, it is still likely the murder weapon was something sharp, and a kitchen knife is still very plausible.”

“But whether or not they actually used it, the killer still wanted us to find the knife,” says Hoshi. “If they never went to the pool, they could have just hidden it or returned it to the kitchen or something.”

Maki speaks up. “Is it not obvious? The killer clearly wanted us to picture the murder a certain way.”

Hoshi turns to her. “And what way is that? Feel like sharing yet?”

Maki gives him a long look, then in the same quiet, emotionless voice, “Another question has the answer to that.” She turns to Kaede. “Akamatsu, you seem to have all the answers. Can you tell me what Tojo was doing the night of her death?”

Iruma snorts. “Besides fucking being killed?”

Maki turns her glare on her. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

Iruma shrinks back into herself. “I-I w-was just tr-tryin’ to help…”

“‘What Tojo-san was doing the night of her death…’” Kaede echoes before frowning. “Harukawa-san, what do you know about Tojo-san’s death that you’re hiding from us?”

Maki turns away. “I’m not hiding anything. I simply don’t think it’s wise to immediately share important information in front of the killer.”

“Hey,” Iruma barks, regaining her confidence. “Anyone else think it’s weird Harukawa just happens to know a bunch of shit we don’t?” 

Momota crosses his arms. “Well, she stays up real late, right? Maybe she just fucking happened to see something when she left her lab for the night.” He shrugs. “Don’t think there’s anything weird about that.”

“Well it’s weird that she’s being a total bitch about it,” Iruma scoffs. 

“I already explained my reasons,” Maki answers. “It’s your own fault if you don’t listen to them.” She shakes her head. “Suspecting me will accomplish nothing.”

Kaede’s mouth turns into a tight thin line. “Hey, Shinguji-kun,” she says. “Did you see Harukawa-san return to the dorms last night?”

He shakes his head. “I did not.”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “Well do you usually see her return at night?”

“No,” Shinguji answers. “But I usually retire to bed roughly around midnight when your training sessions end. Harukawa-san likely returns to her room after then, I can only assume.”

“So, Harukawa-chan as wandering the school alone at night when Tojo-chan was killed?” Ouma asks. “Man, that’s a pretty amazing coincidence.”

Momota glares at him. “Is it a coincidence if it happens literally every night?”

“Oh, but, but,” says Angie. “If Korekiyo was watching the dorms, doesn’t that mean that the killer has to be someone who was already out at night? God was also watching the dorms and he says that Korekiyo totally would have noticed if someone tried to leave!”

“I also say I would have noticed if someone left,” he responds. 

The lines on Kiibo’s face change his expression to one of deep concentration. “Shinguji-kun, what times were you watching the dorms from?”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “From just after the start of nighttime to midnight! He already said that, Kiiboy! Is there something wrong with your memory card or your circuits or something?”

“N-Nothing is wrong with my circuitry!” he says. “I just… never mind,” he sighs. “You’re just going to discriminate against me, aren’t you?”

“No, I promise I won’t,” Ouma says. “Have I ever discriminated against a crummy robot like you before? That doesn’t sound like something I would do.”

“That’s what you do all the time!” Kiibo shouts, pointing an accusing finger at him. 

Ouma begins to sniffle. “Now Kiiboy’s yelling at me… Momota-chan, do something!”

Momota just shakes his head. “I’m just not even gonna fucking acknowledge that.”

Tenko huffs. “Tenko feels like we have been dragged off topic once again.” 

“Oh?” asks Ouma, tears vanishing. “Have we? It’s probably Kiiboy’s fault.”

Hoshi decides to put an end to his nonsense. “Anyway, Harukawa asked a question, didn’t she? Though she’s being cryptic for no reason, figuring out what Tojo was doing before her death is probably important.”

Gonta nods. “Gonta agrees. Kiibo-kun said he spoke to her before nighttime last night. Did anyone else see her after that?”

A moment of silence passes, before Kiibo answers. “It seems like I was the last person to see her then, other than her killer.” 

“When she sabotaged you, right?” asks Angie, bouncing up and down on her heels.

Kiibo frowns. “That… is correct.”

“But why the fuck did she do something like that?” Iruma asks. “Cleaning that crap out was a huge pain in my ass.”

“That’s a good question,” Kaede mumbles quietly before speaking up. “Hey, Kiibo-kun, were you able to investigate Tojo-san’s lab?”

“I was,” he says. “However,” he falters, “I… discovered that the supplies we had been using to clean the hall were simply left in a corner rather than being properly put away like Tojo-san had said she would do. And,” he grimaces, “she also had said she was going to spend time reorganizing things, but I did not find any evidence of that either.”

Gonta’s eyes widen. “Does that mean… Tojo-san lied?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait,” says Iruma. “So fucking Tojo lied to Kiibs and then crammed him full of dead bugs to make him malfunction?!”

Maki speaks to Kaede only. “Do those sound like the actions of an innocent victim?” 

Shirogane gasps. “Are you saying that Tojo-san attacked Kiibo-kun?” 

“But Tojo-san,” says Gonta. “She was always taking care of us… would she really do something like that?”

“Also,” Angie says. “What would attacking Kiibo even accomplish? Like why would she do that?” 

“I’m still not sure exactly what she was trying to do,” says Kaede. “But I think I might know why Tojo-san would possibly try something… drastic.”

_(Present your Argument)_

Kiibo begins, “I don’t want to think Tojo-san would try to hurt us, but all the evidence so far seems to be pointing that way…”

“But why would she do something like that?” Gonta asks. “Tojo-san was our friend…”

Hoshi sighs. “Guess she had more going on than we thought… or maybe she wasn’t the person we thought she was.”

“What? Think she was trying to commit murder or something?” Iruma asks. “She did a pretty shit job.”

“Hmm,” Ouma hums. “Takes one to know one, I guess.”

“A-are you talking to me or the gremlin?” Iruma stutters.

Hoshi glares. “Wanna repeat that?”

Iruma squeaks. 

_(BREAK)_

“I think,” says Kaede. “That Hoshi-kun’s right.”

He looks to her gravely. “I was afraid of that. Was there more evidence in my lab or something?”

Kaede nods. “There was. Remember when I mentioned we found Tojo-san’s glove under something the killer would probably want to get rid of if they knew it was there?”

“Oh yeah,” says Yumeno. “When I was looking in the showers, I didn’t really think there would be anything there, but we found Tojo’s motive video.”

Angie presses her hands to her cheeks. “A motive video!”

“That’s right,” says Tenko. “Due to its position at the scene of the crime, and working with our current assumption that Tojo-san was the one who placed it there, all signs point to Tojo-san having watched her video at some point prior to her death.”

“Well, yeah,” says Iruma. “It’d fucking have to be prior to her death. Can’t fucking watch something if you’re dead.”

“It is simply a figure of speech,” says Tenko.

Angie says, “Unless Tojo-san came back as a gho—”

“S-so moving on,” says Momota quickly. “Uh, so Tojo’s video was fucking wild, uh,” he glances around, “Tell ‘em, Kaede.”

Kaede frowns at him. “Why do I have to…” she shakes her head. “Anyway, Tojo-san’s video said that she, well,” Kaede looks around at the assembled students. “Tojo-san’s person in the outside world is the entire country. She’s… basically the prime minister.”

The courtroom explodes.

Spit flies from Iruma’s mouth. “What!?”

“Well that’s…” Hoshi blinks. “Unexpected.” 

Angie’s jumping up and down. “Oh, wow! Oh, wow! Not even God knew about that!” 

Shirogane’s wringing her hands. “The prime minister was here the whole time and none of us knew?”

“It is a bit hard to believe,” says Shinguji. “Did Tojo-san ever share this information with anyone?”

“Tenko never heard anything about it before watching the video,” she says.

“Tojo-san also didn’t tell me anything,” says Kiibo. “Tojo-san was always very impressive, but to think that she was someone so important…”

Yumeno raises her hand. “It basically said she was the maid of the entire country, so she was just really, really good at her job or something, I guess…”

“B-but,” Gonta stutters. “If that’s true, then why would someone kill Tojo-san?!” 

“She didn’t just have one or two people waiting for her… she had everyone…” Hoshi shakes his head. “Damnit… for someone like her to die…” 

“This may simply be an assumption,” Shinguji says. “But can we presume that the killer never saw her video? It is hard to believe someone would attack Tojo-san after learning she was such an important, admirable person.” 

“Tenko is unsure of that,” she says. “Because if that was the case, would that not mean that Tojo-san received her own video?” 

Kaede furrows her brow. “The morning we received out motive videos… I remember running into Tojo-san.” She looks up. “Kiibo-kun, you were there, too, right?”

He nods. “I was. I believe Tojo-san said she received a video that was not meant for her, however,” he frowns, “that could have been a lie.”

“Shirogane-san,” says Shinguji. “You also received your own video, correct? If that is the case, then perhaps everyone simply had their videos traded with someone else with the exception of Tojo-san and Shirogane-san.”

Kaede shakes her head. “Not necessarily. The videos weren’t a one-to-one trade for everyone.”

“That’s right,” says Gonta. “Hoshi-kun and Gonta talked about the videos with Akamatsu-san, and we realized that even though he had Gonta’s, Gonta didn’t have his.”

Momota raises an eyebrow. “You guys tried to trade videos?”

Hoshi sighs. “Key word being tried. It didn’t happen. Still don’t know who has mine.”

“Well,” says Shirogane. “Even if the videos weren’t a one-to-one trade, can we still assume Tojo-san got her own video or does that mean the culprit did?”

Shinguji waves a finger. “I am still hesitant to think her killer saw the video. After all, even is someone was willing to commit murder, there is a difference between simply killing one of their peers and assassinating the prime minister.”

Kaede blinks at his words and turns to stare at Maki who appears unmoved as ever. “Right,” she says, words hollow. “It’s… pretty hard to believe someone would purposefully assassinate the prime minister.” 

Momota follows her gaze, an unreadable expression on his face. “So,” he says slowly. “For now we’re gonna assume Tojo just got her own video, and the culprit got Chabashira’s, right?”

“Ah, but that’s boring!” says Ouma. “Wouldn’t it be way more exciting if the culprit got Tojo-chan’s video, and she convinced them to trade, and then when the culprit’s back was turned, Tojo-chan attacked them? And then after she killed them—” 

“Do not talk that way about Tojo-san!” says Tenko. “Also that plainly did not happen.”

“Ah, but wouldn’t it be exciting if it did?” asks Ouma. 

Momota clears his throat. “So I kinda hate to admit this, but doesn’t he have a point?”

Ouma beams. “I do? Ooh, ooh! What is it?”

Momota rolls his eyes. “All I’m fucking saying is that since her video was hidden when we found it, we’re assumin’ she saw it, and, well,” he shrugs. “Somethin’ like that probably motivated her to try something.”

Kaede keeps Maki in the corner of her eye even when she says, “So that likely means that on the night of the murder… Tojo-san was…” She blinks. “Trying to commit a murder of her own.”

Before the room can explode with sound, Maki’s cold voice rings out, “Now do you understand why the crime scene was setup the way it was?”

Kaede turns her wary eyes on her. She keeps her voice steady, saying, “Tojo-san tried to kill someone, but the killer wanted to hide that fact. But Harukawa-san,” Kaede’s voice turns harsh, “how did you know that?” 

Maki shakes her head. “That’s not the question you should be asking. What we need to think about is why—”

“No,” says Kaede. “I asked you a question.”

“And I don’t have to answer,” Maki says plainly.

“But you do,” says Kaede. “I figured out what Tojo-san was doing that because I saw her motive video, and the only other people who saw it were Kaito, Tenko-san, Yumeno-san, and possibly the killer.”

Maki regards her coolly. “Are you implying I’m the killer then?”

“Harukawa-san,” Kaede responds. “Tell the truth. You knew what Tojo-san’s intentions were. How?”

“Hey, Kaede—” Momota begins.

“I’ve been helping you all this time,” Maki says. “Do you really believe I would do that if I was the killer?”

“I believe,” says Kaede. “That you’re refusing to answer my question.”

Momota clears his throat. “Kaede, she has been helpin’ out, and we don’t have any real reasons to doubt he—”

“We do though,” says Kaede. “Harukawa-san was out late the night of the murder, her lab where she’s been hiding is on the same floor as Hoshi-kun’s lab so she easily could have investigated it and planned to do something there, she knew Tojo-san tried to kill someone, she pushed really hard to convince everyone that Tenko-san was the culprit, and when I checked my backpa—”

“Kaede-san!” Tenko cuts her off. 

Kaede whips around to face her. “Wha—oh,” she says, the realization of what she was about to say catching up to her all at once. “Right.” She shakes her head. “My point is, unless you have something to prove your innocence, you’re the most likely suspect right now.”

Maki glares. “I’m not the killer. If you vote for me, you’re just killing yourself.”

Kaede just shakes her head. “That’s not a defense.”

Momota tries to interject, “Guys, calm dow—”

“No,” says Maki. “But it’s true.” She sighs. “I knew this would be a pain.”

“Then you shouldn’t have killed Tojo-san,” says Kaede.

Momota says, “Sto—”

“I didn’t,” says Maki. 

“Then prove it!” Kaede shouts. 

“Hey!” Momota shouts, voice rising over Kaede’s. “Both of you shut up and calm the hell down! Yeah, Harukawa’s suspicious, but we can’t just fucking assume she’s the culprit.”

Kaede turns her glare on him. “Why are you defending her?” 

Maki also silently turns her gaze towards him.

“‘Cause I know she didn’t do it,” he says.

Kaede crosses her arms. “Do you have proof?”

“Well,” he scratches the back of his head. “Not exactly. But I still don’t think she did it.”

Kaede presses a hand to her forehead. “Kaito, look, I know you want to be there for people, but this is different. Right now Harukawa-san is the most suspicious. Just believing in her won’t change that.”

Momota clenches his jaw and turns to Maki. “Harukawa,” he says. “You’re not the killer, right? And you’re definitely not just about to fucking give up either, yeah?”

Maki gives him a long stare. “Why are you trying to help me? Aren’t you friends with Akamatsu?”

“Yeah,” he says before slamming his fists together. “And I’m trying to be your friend, too. So c’mon—get your act together, and don’t let her beat you!” 

“I’m not letting anyone—” Maki snaps before shaking her head. “Just stop talking.”

“Will you start arguing for yourself if I do?” Momota asks, a grin growing over his face.

She crosses her arms. “If it will shut you up.”

“Right then,” he smiles. “Okay, Kaede, give her your best shot.”

Kaede just glares. 

_(Present your Argument)_

“Harukawa-san,” Kaede says. “Is plainly the most suspicious person here.”

“You have no reason to doubt me,” says Maki. “You’re only suspecting me because of your own prejudice.” 

“You assassi—killed Tojo-san!” Kaede shouts. 

“Why?” she asks. “Because I was out at night? So were you. So were a lot of people here. So was anyone who managed to slip by Shinguji or simply lied about going back to the dorms before nighttime.”

Kaede shakes her head. “That’s all just speculation. The facts are plainly that you were close to the crime scene, you were alone during the murder, and you’re clearly hiding information. In fact, you’re hiding information right now!”

“Only because sharing it would bring unnecessary suspicion upon myself,” Maki says sighing. “Of course, it would appear that has happened anyway.”

“Then just tell us whatever you’ve been hiding!” says Kaede. 

Maki shakes her head. “You won’t believe me even if I do.”

Kaede points an accusatory finger. “Because you’ve given me no reason to believe in you! All you’ve done is threaten me and my friends since the day we got here! Of course I don’t trust you!”

“Harukawa, Kaede,” says Momota. “Both of you just calm the hell down and listen to each other.”

At the same time, they both turn to him. Maki says, “You shut up,” and the same time Kaede says, “Kaito, be quiet.”

He throws his hands in the air. “I will when you actually fucking do it!”

_(BREAK)_

Kaede takes a deep breath. “Fine. For the time being,” she takes another breath, and prepares to swallow her pride. “I won’t suspect you. Just share what you have to say.”

Maki raises her eyebrows. “Is that a promise you can keep?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know, so my plan is just to keep my mouth shut until you’re done talking.” She glances around the room. “Kaito can handle the questions.”

“Me?” he asks.

“Yeah,” says Kaede. “For the sake of moving things forward, I’m going to sit this one out. So,” she gives him a wry smile, “Tell them, Kaito.”

Momota groans. “I knew that was gonna come back to bite me. Alright,” he sighs, “Harumaki, what do you got?”

“I told you not to call me that,” Maki frowns. “But I have is… I am almost certain there was a second murder weapon.”

Angie gasps. “A second murder weapon?”

“Why the fuck wouldn’t you say that earlier?” Iruma shouts. 

“Hey!” barks Momota. “Let her talk.”

Silence falls back over the room, and after a moment, Maki continues. “I’ve just been staying in my lab for the past few days, but Momota keeps insisting on bringing me meals. Last night after he left, I decided to finally do something about the plates that had been starting to pile up.”

Shirogane mumbles, “Wouldn’t you starve if he didn’t bring you meals?”

Maki ignores her. “It was about fifteen or so minutes before nighttime. I took most of the plates down to the kitchen, and,” she glances at Kaede, “I saw Tojo leaving the cafeteria. I don’t think she saw me, so we didn’t speak, nor did I see her for very long, but she seemed concerned and in a hurry.” 

“Do you know where she was headed?” Momota asks. 

“No,” Maki says. “Simply out of the cafeteria, but when I went to the kitchen, I noticed there were two knives missing from their holder.”

“Two knives,” breathes Tenko. “So… Tojo-san and her killer had one?”

Maki nods. “That makes the most sense. And judging by Tojo’s demeanor when I saw her, it’s likely whoever the culprit is seems to have taken their knife first.”

Gonta frowns in thought. “So her killer knew she was going to attack them?”

“Or maybe they were also planning on committing a murder,” says Hoshi. “If both of them took weapons, it seems neither of them was entirely innocent in this.”

“Yeah,” says Momota. “Is there anything else?”

“Yes,” says Maki. “I returned to my lab for the rest of the night. However, before I went to bed, I discovered a plate I had missed when I was cleaning. When I went back to the kitchen to return it, only one knife was missing.” She looks up at the surrounding faces staring in awe at her. “It was a little after half past twelve at night.”

Kiibo points a finger. “So that means the murder took place between nine-forty and twelve-thirty at night. The Monokuma File purposefully left out the time of death to keep things fair between us and the killer, so we can only assume this time frame reveals the killer’s identity.” 

“And you were keepin’ all of this really important shit to yourself because…?” asks Iruma.

Maki turns her cold eyes on her. “It brings unnecessary suspicion on me. And that is something I would prefer not to deal with.” 

Kaede doesn’t let a single muscle waver when she finally says, “I had my reasons to doubt you. Don’t pretend I didn’t.”

“I know,” says Maki. “And exacerbating those would only lead to needless arguing, though I suppose it’s too late for that now.”

“Well,” says Momota. “Can we stop doubting her now? I really don’t fucking think she would share something like that if she was the killer.”

Kaede sighs. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Then Ouma laughs. “Ah, Akamatsu-chan, you seem so disappointed. It’d be really easy if the killer just happened to be someone you hate, huh?”

“Maybe I did let my own feelings get the better of me,” says Kaede. “But I still believe no one here deserves to die, even if they did kill someone. My personal feelings towards the culprit don’t matter.”

Ouma gives her an odd look. “You believe no one here deserves to die?”

“Of course I do,” she says. “Killing is completely unforgivable, but no one deserves to be executed for it.”

He hums. “Is that really what you think? But what about your ‘justice’ you mentioned earlier? Was that just a lie?”

“I don’t know why you’re wasting time questioning me on this,” Kaede huffs. “Especially since we’ve been arguing for so long, and we still don’t have a suspect in mind.”

“But we have to be nearing the end, right?” Yumeno asks. “I think I missed lunch… I’m so hungry…”

“Just a little longer, Yumeno-san,” Tenko assures. “We now have a timeframe for the murder, and Tenko believes we have discussed almost every clue in detail.” She looks to Kaede. “There isn’t a lot of evidence left, so,” she fidgets, “should we discuss the thing that happened earlier? With the videos?”

Kaede grimaces. “Probably. It’s not likely to be a coincidence, and we’re kind of running into a dead end here now, so,” she straightens her shoulders. “Okay everyone, I have one more, potentially important clue.”

Maki raises her eyebrows. “So you’ve been hiding key evidence this entire time, as well?”

Ouma laughs. “Looks like you two have more in common than you think.”

Kaede just rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I’ve been hesitant to share this for… reasons unrelated to the trial, but the night we received out motive videos, Tenko-san, Kaito, and I agreed it would be safer if I held on to all of our videos in my backpack.”

“Which did keep them safe from a certain awful boy during the bug appreciation party,” Tenko adds. Ouma responds with a beaming smile. 

“However,” Kaede continues. “This morning when I was checking my Monopad, I discovered one of them went missing.”

“Tenko has been thinking about it quite a bit,” she says. “And she has come to the conclusion that the video was likely stolen from Kaede-san.”

“Oh, but who would do something like that?” Angie asks, before steepling her hands above her head. “Hmm, hmm, God says it’s likely connected to the killer…”

Iruma snorts. “Of fucking course it is. Who the fuck else would want to do something like that?”

“I believe this simply creates more mysteries,” Shinguji interjects. “After all, what would the culprit have to gain by doing such a thing?” 

“Well,” Hoshi says adjusting his hat. “The culprit left both Chabashira’s and Tojo’s videos at the crime scene. Even though we don’t know who got which one, we can assume at least of them belonged to the killer.”

“Gonta thinks he understands,” he says. “The culprit probably stole a video from Akamatsu-san so they would have one if we just tried to check the videos. Does… does that sound right?”

Hoshi nods. “It makes a lot of damn sense at least.”

Shirogane pales. “But we almost did… we almost played right into the killer’s hands…”

Kiibo tenses. “I apologize for suggesting such a thing. It appears I fell for the killer’s trap.”

“Hey,” says Momota. “Don’t fucking beat yourself up. You couldn’t have known.”

“Ah, thank you,” says Kiibo. “But I also feel I must apologize for much of my behavior. It seems… both Tojo-san and the killer used me to get away with their actions.”

“How the fuck is that your fault?” Iruma asks. “It’s not your fault they’re assholes. You couldn’t have fucking done anything in the first place—you haven’t done anything wrong, far as I’m concerned.” 

Kiibo blinks at her. “Uh, thank you, Iruma-san. That is very kind of you to say.”

Iruma suddenly freezes. “Y-yeah. D-don’t mention it.”

“Wow,” Ouma says, eyes filled with wonder. “That’s so gross.” 

“Ouma-san!” says Tenko. “Tenko orders you to stop being rude!”

He puffs out his cheeks. “But they’re so disgusting and _so_ distracting! How can I focus with them around when they’re all over each other?” 

Kiibo yells, “I-Iruma-san and I have done nothing wrong!” 

“But you’re so loud and so distracting!” Ouma cries again. 

Tenko starts reprimanding him again, but the gears in Kaede’s mind begin to turn. Very deliberately she says, “Ouma-kun, are you trying to give us a hint?”

“Hmm?” he hums. “What are you talking about? Is there even anything to give a hint about?”

“Um, Gonta isn’t sure,” Gonta chimes in. “But there are plenty of things about the missing motive video we don’t know.”

“There are…” Kaede agrees. “And the main thing is that we don’t know when it was taken, but…”

“You got something, Kaede?” Momota asks.

She closes her eyes to think. “Whoever took the video,” Kaede says slowly, “didn’t have very many opportunities to steal it. I mean, I definitely would have noticed someone rifling through my backpack while I was wearing it.”

Tenko frowns. “Kaede-san wears it most of the time, except for,” her eyes widen, “except for when we’re at training.” 

“But if someone tried to take it when we’re training, we’d fucking notice, right?” asks Momota. “I mean, there’s no fucking animals or anything, so if we heard any sounds of someone creeping around, we’d definitely spot ‘em immediately.” 

“But what if we were distracted?” says Kaede suddenly. “What if we were distracted by a malfunctioning robot running straight out of the dorms?”

“I,” says Kiibo. “Was also the distraction?” 

Iruma suddenly slams her hands on her podium. “I just fucking realized something! Everybody—shut the fuck up and listen!”

“What is it, Iruma-san?” asks Kiibo. “Did you remember something about last night?”

“Kinda,” she says. “So, like, I’m a genius and I’m right about everything, yeah? Everyone fucking knows that, but earlier Kiibs kept arguing with me about him stepping on a branch outside, which scared the fucking shit out of me. And he kept saying he didn’t do it, so what if he fucking didn’t?”

Tenko says, “The only people who should have been outside were Tenko, Kaede-san, Momota-san, Kiibo-san, and Iruma-san. The branch snapped while Tenko, Kaede-san, and Momota-san were altogether, and Tenko did not hear any of us do it. And if it was not Kiibo-san or Iruma-san, then that means…”

“There was fucking someone else outside!?” Momota shouts. “That’s fucking creepy!” 

Kaede nods. “Also, if I remember right, Tojo-san had swept the path clear of debris like branches a few days ago, which means the only place you could step on a branch is if you were hiding in the bushes or something.”

Tenko’s eyes bulge. “Does that mean the killer was watching us from the bushes the whole time just waiting for a chance to take the video?”

“Wait,” says Hoshi suddenly. “I have a theory—if the killer wanted the video that badly, would they really just leave it to chance that there would be a moment when you were all distracted?” 

“Probably not,” says Kaede. “Do you think they planned Kiibo’s malfunction then?”

“Not necessarily planned it,” says Hoshi. “But they probably knew it was going to happen and were waiting for it.” 

“Oh, but Kirumi’s the one who sabotaged Kiibo, right?” says Angie. “Did she tell the killer?”

Shinguji nods. “That is odd, is it not? I find it rather difficult to believe Tojo-san would share the finer details of her plan with her killer.”

“Also,” says Yumeno. “Were you guys distracted for a really long time? ‘Cause the killer’d have to go back to the dorms or sneak around somewhere else after grabbing the video, right?”

“How did the killer get back to the dorms?” Shirogane muses. “Were they just planning on being sneaky? Or did were they going to wait it out for you to finish?”

“That’s a good question,” Kaede says. “How was the killer planning on getting back to the dorms? I…” she frowns, “I don’t know…”

Tenko claps her hands. “Alright everyone, let’s all work together to help, Kaede-san!”

She blinks at her. “Tenko-san?”

“Kaede-san has been working hard to get us through this trial,” Tenko continues. “And now we all need to work together to help her!”

“Gonta will try his hardest!” he says.

“Hey, that’s what I was gonna say!” shouts Momota.

Iruma snorts. “You were gonna say big dick should try his hardest? Well, whatever, I don’t wanna die, so I’ll try or something.”

Shirogane clasps her hands. “Oh wow! It’s almost like I get to be a real cool detective in a visual novel! Okay, I’ll help, too!”

“In that case,” Tenko says. “Let’s all try our hardest and think of a solution together.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“The culprit had to get back to the dorms somehow, yeah?” Momota says. “How would they do that if we were outside the whole time?”

“Oh, what if,” Shirogane begins, “they just waited near the school for you to finish, and went back then?”

Hoshi crosses his arms. “But if they did that, they’d risk just hanging out and being suspicious if anyone happened to come by.”

“Maybe they had a really good hiding spot?” Angie asks. “Or maybe they had another distraction planned!”

“Tenko does not recall any other distractions,” she says. “If there was one, Tenko likely would have been… distracted by it.”

“Well, the three of you are real fucking loud,” Iruma says. “Maybe they just counted on that and snuck past.”

“Hey!” Momota yells. “I’m not fucking loud!”

Tenko shouts, “Tenko is not loud either!”

“Y’know,” says Hoshi. “As much as I hate to agree with Iruma, she’s got a point.”

“Yeah!” she shouts before suddenly becoming offended. “Hey, what do you mean ‘hate to agree?’”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait,” says Kaede. “I think Iruma-san’s right. The most likely possibility is that the killer just snuck past us. I mean, it’d be pretty risky to just keep hiding in the bushes. If I had discovered the video was missing when we were outside, we would have all started searching for it.”

“And then we would have caught the fucking killer right then and there,” says Momota smacking his forehead. “Damnit. We could’ve ended this immediately.”

“Wait a minute,” says Tenko. “Tenko just realized something else important.”

“You know who the killer is, Chabashira?” Momota asks.

She shakes her head. “No, but Tenko realized that we can narrow our timeframe further. If the killer was outside with us when Kiibo-san’s malfunction happened, that means they had already finished preparing the crime scene at eleven.”

Kaede furrows her brow and looks out across at her assembled classmates. She squares her shoulders, takes a deep breath, and tells herself she’s doing the right thing. “Okay,” she says. “There are still a few things I’m not quite sure about, but with all of the information we’ve discussed, I think I know who the killer is. Or at least,” her eyes linger of her suspect. “I’m suspicious of them enough that I want to hear what they have to say.”

_(Select Someone)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sadly did not quite reach the killer reveal like I was planning to, so enjoy a cliffhanger instead, haha. The next chapter might be a bit shorter than usual, though there's always the execution and other post-trial stuff, which will hopefully also be interesting!


	9. Trial III

“Hey, Kiibo-kun,” Kaede begins. “Can you repeat your entire testimony from last night one more time? Starting with when you woke up? I want to check one last thing.”

“Alright,” he says nodding. “It was around eleven or so at night I believe when I began to get error messages that something was wrong. I admittedly panicked a bit more than necessary, but quickly exited the dormitories to find Iruma-san for help. I ran into her when she was walking back from lab near where I believe your training spot is, and… I ended up startling her a bit.”

Iruma chooses to interject, “Nearly fucking pissed myself.”

Kiibo appears to take her comment in stride continuing on, “Sorry again, Iruma-san. But,” he turns back to Kaede. “I believe Iruma-san then took me to her lab until approximately four in the morning for cleaning.” He frowns. “We’ve already been over this a few times… but was any of that useful?”

Kaede sets her hat forward on her head. “Yes, thank you. Just one more question, though: Iruma-san was the first person you saw when you left your room, right?”

Kiibo nods. “Correct.” 

“Okay then,” she takes a deep breath and prepares to condemn another person to death. “Hey, Shinguji-kun, what were you doing when Kiibo-kun left his room?”

He turns to her. “I was simply observing from my usual spot,” he says. “Why do you ask, Akamatsu-san?”

“See, I have a problem with that,” says Kaede. “Since it sounds like Kiibo-kun definitely didn’t see you.” 

“That sounds like an accusation, Akamatsu-san,” says Shinguji. “Do you suspect me?”

“I’m afraid that I’m beginning to,” says Kaede.

He nods. “Very well. I’d like to hear your reasoning, then, if you don’t mind, Akamatsu-san.”

Kaede blinks at the reaction. “Uh, sure. Of course.”

Momota places a hand on his hip. “Dude, you’re being really fucking calm for someone being accused of murder.”

Shinguji simply crosses his arms. “Perhaps I am. Though, personally, I feel I have little to worry about.” He presses a hand to the side of his face. “Now then, being suspected of murder is quite an interesting experience. Could you continue your deductions, Akamatsu-san?”

“Oh God,” Iruma pulls a face. “Is he fucking getting off on this shit or something?”

His attention turns to her. “Iruma-san, I believe I wasn’t talking to you. It is very rude to intrude on other people’s conversations.”

“Yeah!” Ouma laughs. “The pig really should shut her gross mouth, huh? It’d be really boring if we just got stuck listening to her again, sooo,” he turns to Kaede as well, “what do you have to say Akamatsu-chan? Why do you think Shinguji-chan did it?”

Silence falls over the others and the attention of the room turns almost unanimously to Kaede, and all at once the flood of guilt from the last trial and the last execution come over her. She glances towards Shinguji who seems even calmer than Saihara had when death loomed over his head. There isn’t a hint of anger in his expression, and Kaede speaks only to the odd but kind boy she remembers talking with almost every night since Saihara’s death. 

She opens her mouth to say, “Actually, um, maybe we should keep thinking. It… might still be too early to accuse someone. Sorry, Shinguji-kun. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclu—”

“Aw, boo!” says Ouma, leaning forward tiny hands in fists. “No takesies-backsies, Akamatsu-chan!” 

Kaede’s too bewildered by his sudden words to respond with anything but, “What?”

“Just when we were getting to the super fun part of accusing someone, you back out,” Ouma says, puffing out his cheeks. “You ruined all the fun last time, too.”

“I see,” says Maki. “You’re implying Akamatsu is choosing to defend the culprit yet again.”

“I will take that as you suspecting me as well then, Harukawa-san,” says Shinguji. “However, forgive me, but I would prefer to hear the proper reasoning from someone else.”

Maki glances to him, red eyes narrowed, but voice still emotionless. “Why?”

He merely shrugs, but looks back to Kaede. “My own personal preference, I’m afraid. The details aren’t mine to share.”

“Ooh,” says Ouma. “Looks like Shinguji-chan doesn’t like Harukawa-chan either!” He laughs. “Wow, and here I thought I was the least well liked student.”

Gonta gasps. “Don’t say that, Ouma-kun! Gonta likes you.”

Hoshi frowns. “You really shouldn’t.”

“No kidding,” Momota agrees.

Ouma sniffles. “Aw, Momota-chan… do you like Harukawa-chan more than me?”

Momota throws his hands in the air. “I like fucking everyone more than you!”

Then Ouma presses two fingers to his temple and twists his face into something dark. “Even the killer? Are you going to protect them, too, then? Are you going to run away from your beloved truth like Akamatsu-chan?”

Kaede sparks back to life at the sound of her name. “I’m not running!” she immediately retorts. “I’m…” images of Saihara being dragged away flash through her mind. “I’m just being careful.”

“Are you choosing to retract your earlier statements then?” Shinguji asks. 

Her head snaps back to him, and she finds herself at a loss for words. Kaede opens and closes her mouth and finally says, “I think… that no one deserves to die, and we should think through this more carefully before voting for anyone at all.”

“Kaede-san,” says Tenko. “Sorry if Tenko is mistaken, but are you suggesting we… don’t vote?”

“W-wait!” shouts Iruma. “I-if we do some nonsense like that, w-won’t we all get executed?”

Kiibo nods. “I am afraid I have to agree, and,” he shakes his head. “Though I understand Tojo-san was… perhaps not the person I thought she was, my inner voice is still telling me to find justice for her.”

“If it matters,” says Shinguji almost conversationally. “I would not mind continuing on as we are, and I say this as the one accused. However,” he stretches out his arms, “this is a truly fascinating turn of events, I must say.”

Kaede can’t stop herself from snapping at him. “How can you say that!? If you are the culprit—if anyone here is the culprit—we’re—!” she stomps her foot, “—then we’re all murderers! Don’t you guys understand?”

Maki scoffs. “You truly are a bleeding heart. However even you must be aware that siding with the culprit for your own ideals will only cause us all to suffer, right?” 

Kaede expects another quip from him, but Ouma simply stares at her curiously. “Rebel against the school trial…” he tilts his head. “Perhaps you’re not as boring as I thought, Akamatsu-chan.”

“Huh?” she says.

Ouma smiles and folds his hands behind his head. “You know what? Sure! If you don’t want to vote, I won’t vote either. Your call, Akamatsu-chan!”

“Don’t listen to him, Kaede,” says Momota immediately. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s planning but it’s definitely a trap.”

Ouma pouts. “Never! Am I the kind of person who would try to trick poor Akamatsu-chan?”

“You… definitely are,” says Kaede, but she can’t help herself from fidgeting with Saihara’s hat. 

“Kukuku,” Shinguji laughs. “This is quite interesting. I have to admit I had no idea I was this well liked among my peers.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Angie shouts. “Angie likes Korekiyo, too, buuut, buuut, buuut, God says we should still make extra sure he isn’t the culprit first before we decide not to vote for him.”

“Naturally,” Shinguji agrees with an incline of his head. “You have a very prudent God, after all, Angie-san.”

Kiibo speaks up again. “I must agree. Akamatsu-san, I understand your apprehension, but we must continue forward for the good of everyone.”

“Except for the culprit!” says Ouma, laughing. “Man, Kiiboy has no sense of sympathy, huh? But I guess he is just a useless robot.”

He jabs a finger towards Ouma. “Do not say such things! And!” he grips his podium, “Were you not the one who said we should not sympathize with culprits in the first place?”

Ouma taps a finger to his chin. “Huh? Did I say something like that? Hmm… I was probably lying,” he grins, “or maybe I’m lying now. But a robot like you probably couldn’t figure out which one is which.”

“Alright, quit the crap!” Momota shouts. “Kaede,” he looks to her. “You think Shinguji did it, yeah? Well, why don’t we figure out if he did fucking do it or not?” He slams his fists together. “We need to find justice for Tojo, right?”

“Th-that’s right!” Shirogane adds in. “We can’t simply give up just because…” she takes a shaky breath, “because this is all so cruel.”

Angie claps her hands. “Yup! God says it’s super important that we vote for someone. Sorry, Korekiyo!”

“No need to apologize,” he answers. “I have decided I am fine with any outcome we come to, though I would prefer a proper trial if I am to be chosen as Tojo-san’s murderer.”

Hoshi shakes his head. “Like Momota said, you are way too calm for this.”

“Perhaps I am,” Shinguji says. “Now then, Akamatsu-san, I’d still like to hear your reasons for suspecting me.”

Kaede just stares at him. Part of her reminds herself that she barely knows Shinguji. Another part says that she barely knew Saihara. And then one more part reminds her that finding the answer to the trial might be completely meaningless, and another one of her friends will die brutally anyway. Kaede says, “Are you asking me to kill you?”

“Kaede-san,” says Tenko. “Tenko understands that you are nervous, but remember we are not all counting on you—we are all working together.” She addresses the rest of the group. “If we make a mistake, it is everyone’s fault for not trying their hardest, not just Kaede-san’s. So Tenko believes we should all work together,” she glances towards Shinguji. “Even Shinguji-san, if he is willing.”

He nods. “Everyone working together for mutual survival… I believe I can support that, even if it would result in a rather unfortunate end for me.”

“Seriously,” says Hoshi. “Why aren’t you panicking?”

Shinguji tuts at him. “My reasons are my own. And as I have said before, I am satisfied with every outcome. I have been for some time.”

Hoshi frowns. “What does that mean?”

“It means that I believe we should continue are discussion,” Shinguji says. “Chabashira-san, you seem to be taking the lead, too, now, and I would be interested to hear arguments from you as well. What are your thoughts?”

Tenko pulls a face at being addressed. “Tenko thinks…” she glances to Kaede. “That we should first establish if Shinguji-san has an alibi or not.”

“Very well,” he says with a nod. “Now we should begin with last night then, correct?”

“Yes,” says Tenko. “Kaede-san, will you help Tenko? Even if you are nervous, Tenko believes we can find the answer if we work together and share the responsibility with everyone.”

Kaede looks at Tenko’s expression of pure understanding from under the brim of Saihara’s hat before taking a deep breath and pushing it up. “I… yes,” she turns back towards all of her assembled classmates. “We need to find the answer. We need to find justice.”

The others begin to talk, and Kaede misses the way Ouma’s gleaming expression falters to one of disgust. 

_(Present your Argument)_

“I’d like to address your reason for suspecting me first,” says Shinguji. “Which was the fact that Kiibo-kun did not see me when he left the dorms.”

“That is correct,” says Kiibo. “I was admittedly in a rather frantic state, but I did not see you, suggesting you were somewhere else when the video was stolen.”

“So I don’t want to side with the gimp,” Iruma interjects, “but Kiibs, you were freaking the fuck out, and it is dark as shit when you leave the dorms at night. Maybe you just missed tall, dark, and kinky?” 

Kiibo presses a hand to his chin. “That is always a possibility.”

“Well,” says Momota. “Maybe we’re thinking about this wrong. Like, who even fucking knew about Kaede holding the motive videos in the first place?”

“You did!” Iruma shouts jabbing a finger at him.

“Shut the fuck up!” Momota shouts back.

“Please do not swear at Iruma-san,” scolds Kiibo. “She is simply trying her best.”

Iruma flushes. “K-Kiibs…”

Momota pulls a face. “You guys are gross.”

_(BREAK)_

“That’s it!” shouts Kaede suddenly. “Kaito, that’s it!”

“What?” he asks. “That Iruma and Kiibo are gross?”

“No, not that,” Kaede waves her hand. “The part about the motive videos. It’s actually been bugging me since we started the investigation, and I realized one was missing. Yumeno-san actually brought it up.”

The girl in question blinks. “I did?”

“That’s right!” says Tenko. “Tenko remembers that during the investigation, Yumeno-san asked about who knew that Kaede-san was holding on to multiple motive videos in her backpack.”

“Oh yeah,” she drawls. “I guess I did… I’m really figuring out a lot this investigation…”

“Yes,” Tenko agrees. “Yumeno-san has been absolutely vital to all of our discoveries.” 

“Well, maybe not all of them,” Kaede gently corrects. “But, the point is that the only people who knew about the motive videos should have been me, Tenko-san, and Kaito, and,” she glances towards him, “possibly Shinguji-kun. He was watching our training sessions, so it’s likely he saw us trading them.”

Momota nods. “Oh yeah, I even remember, like, walking the fuck past him with mine when I went back to my room to get it.”

“Which means,” Kaede continues. “That whether Shinguji-kun is the one who stole one of the videos or not, he definitely at the very least knew about it, and knew about an opportunity to take one when I wouldn’t be wearing my backpack.”

“So,” says Hoshi. “What do you have to say for yourself, then?”

Shinguji nods. “Attempting to deny my seeing Momota-kun leave the dorms with his motive video would be a rather fruitless endeavor, wouldn’t it? As such, I will concede this point.”

Kaede blinks at him. “You’re… admitting to stealing one of the videos?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “I am admitting to being aware that Momota-kun gave his video to you. However, I am also proposing that Momota-kun and Chabashira-san are not the quietest of people. There is always a chance that someone else caught wind of Akamatsu-san holding on to their videos due to them simply raising their voices or speaking of it at inadvisable times.”

“T-Tenko was really careful,” she protests. “She didn’t even tell Yumeno-san. So if that happened, it was probably someone else…”

“Hey!” Momota shouts. “I didn’t fuck up, either!”

Maki, of all people, snorts before quickly looking away from him. 

“Harumaki!” he says. “C’mon, you know me! Would I be that careless to just randomly yell something as fucking important as that?”

She regards him out of the corner of her eyes. “Do you want me to answer that honestly?”

Ouma laughs. “Ooh, Momota-chan just got shot down again!”

“I’m not even fucking talking to you!” he yells back. “ _Anyway_ we know Shinguji knew about us giving our videos to Kaede. Is that enough to prove he’s the culprit?”

Kaede bites her lip and steals a glance at Shinguji, still composed as ever. “I think,” she says. “We should still keep talking. There’s more I’d like to hear his response to.”

“Oh, of course,” says Shirogane. “We need to make sure we’re absolutely certain we get the culprit right, so if there’s any unanswered questions we should probably go over them.”

“Yes,” Kiibo says. “We cannot let anything stop us from ensuring we discover the true culprit. Our margin of error was far too close for comfort last time.”

Kaede grimaces. 

Maki says, “Can we all stop pretending we don’t know who’s to blame for that?”

“Harukawa-san,” says Tenko. “Tenko would like to apologize in advance for saying this, but please stop talking. Attempting to assign blame for the events of the last trial will only drag us off our current topic. In case you have forgotten, Kaede-san is not our current suspect.”

“That’s right,” says Hoshi. “Shinguji is. And I happened to think of another pretty damning thing against him after mulling it over a bit.”

“Oh?” Shinguji asks. “What do you have to say Hoshi-kun?”

Hoshi gives him a wary look, but continues on to say, “Talking about the only people who should know stuff got me thinking. Remember when I was suspected for having stuff happen in my lab? Well, how many people even knew about that room in the first place?”

“Let’s see,” says Momota. “Me and Kaede found it, so us. And also everyone who happened to be looking around the pool, right?”

Hoshi nods. “Which was me, Shirogane, and Shinguji.”

“Hoshi-kun, Shirogane-san, and Shinguji-kun,” Kaede muses. “Wait… I just… thought of something else, too. Shirogane-san, you got your own motive video, right?”

She nods hesitantly. “I… did.”

“And I know whose motive videos Kaito and I got,” Kaede continues. “And Hoshi-kun’s, too, since he tried to trade with Gonta-kun. So almost everyone’s accounted for then…”

Yumeno frowns. “I don’t get it. Who’s accounted for?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about how the culprit had to have been given either Tojo-san or Tenko-san’s motive video,” replies Kaede. “And almost everyone who knew about the hidden room actually told me whose video they got at some point or another.”

“Oh yeah, huh?” says Momota. “Man, we’re really shit at keeping secrets…”

Iruma waves her hand. “Me and Kiibs fucking got each other’s and we already traded, so that means neither of us can be the killer!” She thrusts a finger at Ouma. “So some little twink here should stop fucking accusing us!”

Ouma beams back at her. 

Momota rubs the back of his head. “Didn’t I just fucking say you guys are shit at keeping secrets?”

“Wait, Iruma-san,” says Kaede. “When exactly did you and Kiibo-kun trade videos?”

“Uh,” she twists a piece of hair between her fingers. “At lunch before big dick’s rampage. Y’know before we went to the fucking bathroom—”

“R-right!” Kaede quickly cuts her off. “A-and, do you remember who else was there?”

She frowns. “Well, fucking me and Kiibs. I didn’t really pay too much attention to the other losers hanging around.”

Hoshi sighs. “It was me, Tojo, and… Shinguji.” He looks over to the tall boy. “That’s actually where I got the idea of the motive video’s being a one-to-one trade into my head.”

“Okay,” Kaede prompts. “I know it was a while ago, but… did either of them seem to react to Iruma-san and Kiibo-kun trading videos?”

Hoshi crosses his arms. “This could just be me seeing things that aren’t there, thanks to hindsight, but Tojo at least seemed interested.”

Kiibo shifts from foot to foot. “She did… often mention that she liked knowing there were people depending on her… do you think she tried to trade for her video?”

“I don’t know if we have enough information to say for certain,” says Kaede. “Especially since I know Tenko-san didn’t have Tojo-san’s video.”

“Well, how about it, Tenko?” Angie asks. “God wants to know if Kirumi ever asked you to trade videos. Did she? Did she?”

“Tojo-san did not,” Tenko says. “So… does that mean we should stick to our earlier assumption that Tojo-san got her own video?”

Kaede tugs on the brim of Saihara’s hat in thought. “I guess. But… either way we know Tojo-san probably ended up with her video at some point before her death, since we found it hidden away.”

“Wait a minute,” says Momota. “So, like, if Shinguji is the fucking killer, does that mean he never saw his own video?”

Shinguji nods. “Though I am not currently inclined to answer the first part of that statement for obvious reasons, I will confirm that I never did watch my video or discover who had it.”

“Oh, I did,” says Momota.

The part of Shinguji’s face Kaede can see suddenly grows the most irritated she has seen since the trial began. “Well then,” he says. “A bit of a shame I never figured that out, even after you walked right past me with it.”

“Hey, I was keeping my part of the fucking deal to keep the videos secret until the screening or whatever,” he retorts. 

“Um, sorry to interrupt,” says Shirogane. “But speaking of videos and the screening, didn’t Ouma-kun break into everyone’s rooms to watch the videos? Shouldn’t he know who got whose?”

Kaede turns to the small boy, still bearing a gleaming smile. “That’s right. So do you know, and you’ve just been keeping it a secret this whole time?”

Ouma tilts his head. “Oh? Why would I do a thing like that? I’m a team player, you know.”

Kaede huffs. “Alright, that’s enough. No lies—just answer the question, please.”

Ouma’s wide eyes narrow. “Hmm… no lies? But will you believe me even if I say it’s the truth?”

Momota snorts almost automatically. “No.”

“Then there’s your answer,” Ouma replies. “And it’s just as well, since I don’t know!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” says Momota. “You’re lying again, aren’t you? You know the goddamn answer, but you just want to make us all squirm or some shit.”

He puffs out his cheeks. “Well, then. If you think I’m not not not lying, then I guess I won’t talk to you anymore.” He folds his hands behind his head. “Yup, I don’t feel like talking to Momota-chan aaaanymoooore. Anyone else have a question?”

“You have got to be fucking—”

“Momota-chan!” Ouma says. “I just said I didn’t want to talk to you anymore! You have to give me space in our relationship! You’re suffocating me!”

Momota’s face begins to turn an interesting shade of red, so Kaede quickly interjects, “ _Anyway_ let’s just… come back to the videos later.” She shakes her head. “The reason I brought it up is because, Shinguji-kun,” and she steels herself as she turns to kill him, “you’re the only person who knew about the hidden room whose video isn’t accounted for. You’re the only person who was actively watching people coming and leaving the dorms that night. And you’re the only person who knew about me holding on to multiple motive videos.”

“So,” says Maki flatly. “What do you have to say to that?”

“I’d say,” he says calmly. “That there is still one thing that you have yet to account for.”

And Kaede feels almost the weirdest sense of relief. “What is it?” she says, entirely too hopeful. 

“I have an alibi,” Shinguji replies. “You yourself saw me the night of Tojo-san’s death logically when it was happening based on our time window.”

Kaede blinks. “That’s right.”

“Tenko… also remembers that,” she adds. “It was just at the start of nighttime when Kaede-san and Tenko saw Shinguji-san at the dorms.”

He nods. “And if Tojo-san’s murder took place from between roughly nine-forty and eleven, then I would plainly have to be in two places at once to be the culprit.” 

“Oh, fuck, wait,” says Momota. “Remember that there was shit in the gym? Doesn’t that mean the culprit had to do stuff before nighttime started?”

“And you all saw Shinguji-kun right at the beginning of nighttime,” Gonta chimes in. “Does that mean he didn’t do it?”

“Or it means he did everything in twenty minutes or less!” says Angie. “God’s super impressed at how fast that is!”

“So,” asks Yumeno looking to Kaede. “Does that mean we’re wrong and need to find another suspect?”

Kaede grips the edge of her podium and thinks as hard as she can, staring around at the confused and frustrated faces of everyone depending on her. Shinguji still seems as unperturbed as ever, merely watching the reactions of their classmates evenly. The idea of being punished for being wrong terrifies her, but sentencing another one of her friends to death… 

She takes a breath. “Everyone—I’m not wrong,” she looks directly to Shinguji. “I am so, so sorry Shinguji-kun, but I know why your alibi doesn’t hold up, and,” she squeezes her eyes shut, “and I know you killed Tojo-san.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Very well. Please continue, Akamatsu-san.”

His calmness kills her as the last debate starts.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Shinguji-kun has an alibi,” Gonta begins earnestly. “Akamatsu-san and Chabashira-san saw him at the beginning of nighttime.”

“He’d have to be lightening fast to kill Kirumi,” says Angie. “Maybe God helped him? But why would God help someone kill Kirumi?”

“It’s because there’s evidence in the gym, right?” says Hoshi. “And you get kicked out at ten. And if Shinguji is accounted for right at ten, then he just wouldn’t have enough time to be the killer.”

“That sounds right,” says Momota. “I mean, it’s pretty hard to believe Tojo would just let the killer pause their murder attempt or something.”

Kiibo places a hand over his heart. “So we need to keep searching for the killer to find justice for Tojo-san.”

“Justice, schmustice,” says Ouma. “What’s really important is that we keep the game going, right? Be a real shame if it ended here!”

Shirogane gasps. “You’re awful! How can you say something like that?”

“I don’t know,” says Ouma. “How can Kiiboy say his platitudes with a straight face?”

“Justice is not a platitude!” Kiibo shouts. 

“Pssh,” says Ouma. “As if a useless robot would even know what justice is.”

_(BREAK)_

And Kaede thinks about the justice in the murder she’s about to commit as she says, “Wait, Kaito, you’re completely right.”

He blinks. “About what? The killer… paused their fucking murder?”

“They did,” says Kaede. “We’ve talked a lot about how Tojo-san… was not exactly innocent in this either, so we need to stop thinking about her as a helpless victim because we need to face that she plainly wasn’t.”

“Kaede-san,” says Tenko. “Are you suggesting Tojo-san… cooperated with her killer?”

“I am,” says Kaede. “The killer worked so hard to manipulate the crime scene to make it look like she was just a victim, but we know that isn’t true. So now we need to think about why the killer would go to all that trouble.”

Kiibo says, “And the reason is that they were working together? Is that what you mean?”

“If Tojo and her killer were working together…” Hoshi muses. “That would explain one thing that we still haven’t figured out.” 

“And that is?” prompts Iruma. 

“The scene at the gym,” Hoshi continues. “We figured out why the spots of blood looked the way they did at the pool, but not at the gym. There’s no bloody footprints or anything, and if it was just a one-sided attack, wouldn’t one of them have run away or screamed for help or something?”

“That’s right,” says Shirogane. “A-and when the gym closed, they would have had the perfect chance to! But neither of them did… so…”

“I-I knew that!” says Iruma. “I already figured all of that out. I fucking knew from the start Tojo and what’s his face just up and walked out of the gym holding hands or whatever.”

Kaede nods. “It also finally explains the glove. Tojo-san and Shinguji-kun likely still had weapons on them when they left the gym. If they wanted to carry them from the gym to Hoshi-kun’s lab, they’d need a way to stop them from creating a trail of blood.”

“Ooh,” says Yumeno. “If they were mages, they’d just use magic, but instead Tojo just put her knife in one of her gloves, right?”

“Which is why there was blood smeared on the inside of it!” says Tenko. “Yumeno-san’s deductions are amazing once again.”

“W-w-wait!” shouts Iruma. “Wait a fucking second! If they were working together, and Tojo let Shitguji leave to get his alibi, was she just doing that to fuck with our timeframe?”

Momota crosses his arms. “That makes a lot of sense. Oh!” he slams a fist into his palm. “And, so, like, Tojo was probably planning on fucking winning their fight or whatever, right? So Shinguji being seen at ten would completely fuck our sense of time for the murder if that happened.”

“Ooh, and the sabotage!” Angie cheers. “So, so like Korekiyo could sneak past you guys ‘cause he watched you all the time, right? But Kirumi didn’t, so, so—”

Gonta gasps. “Was she counting on Kiibo-kun to distract them to get back to the dorms without being seen? Does that mean Tojo-san really… was trying to commit murder?”

Hoshi frowns. “A lot of this is speculation, but… if it’s true, then it’s all starting to piece together.”

“And it means we found the answer to this case,” says Kaede. “Total cooperation between the killer and the victim.” She speaks only to Shinguji. “So, that’s my complete and final reasoning. What do you have to say?”

“I say,” he replies calmly. “You’ve figured me out almost completely. I am quite impressed.”

Maki raises an eyebrow. “Is that a confession?”

Shinguji merely nods. “I said before, I am content with any outcome. I don’t intend to go kicking and screaming as I have already completed my purpose.” He spreads his arms out to his sides and looks to the sky. “I have completed my purpose to the absolute best of my abilities and can move on to the next life with no regrets.”

Kaede is left blinking. “Your purpose?”

“Yes,” he says. “I believe you figured out my methods almost exactly, though I am afraid my motives may still elude you.”

“Care to share?” asks Momota. “You did fucking kill someone, even if…” he frowns, “even if Tojo accepted it, I guess?”

“Tojo-san fought tooth and nail in our duel,” Shinguji says. “She was someone of great import, after all, and her life was worth that of hundreds, and she wanted desperately to escape from this place. Our goals ended up aligning almost perfectly.”

“Goals?” Angie tilts her head. “Angie’s getting confused, and God says that someone should start explaining things.”

Kaede straightens her hat. “I suppose… that we have a confession, but I’d like to quickly summarize everything we know… to ensure there are no mistakes,” she bites her lip, “and that Shinguji-kun really did kill Tojo-san.”

Shinguji nods. “The floor is yours, Akamatsu-san.”

“First,” Kaede begins. “Right before nighttime, Tojo-san and Kiibo-kun were cleaning in the hallway on the second floor. But, at that point, Tojo-san had likely already spoken with the culprit and was already planning a murder of her own. For her plan to work later on so she could sneak back to the dorms, Tojo-san used the opportunity to sabotage Kiibo-kun by filling one of his fans with some of the debris they were sweeping up.”

“A fuckton of dead bugs!” Iruma calls out before quickly being shushed by Momota.

“Next, Tojo-san went to the kitchen to get a weapon,” Kaede continues. “On her way back, Harukawa-san, who was returning plates to the kitchen happened to see her, though Tojo-san didn’t notice. Harukawa-san also saw that a second knife was gone from the kitchen, meaning the killer had already taken their weapon by that point. This was at roughly fifteen or so minutes before nighttime, and we can only assume Tojo-san and the killer met at the gym where they began their fight.

“However, due to the nighttime rule, they had to leave before ten, and at this point, they probably agreed on going to an out of the way location that the killer likely suggested—the secret room in the back of Hoshi-kun’s lab, also,” she looks towards Shinguji standing serenely as she rattles off his crimes, “the killer ended up parting ways with Tojo-san so they could appear at the dorms to establish an alibi for the night.

“In the hidden room, Tojo-san likely placed her motive video that she was carrying to protect it or maybe to motivate herself in the back of one of the showers to retrieve later, as well as the glove she had used to move her weapon without it dripping blood. When the killer arrived later after sneaking past me, Tenko-san, and Kaito due to having observed our movements for the last few nights, the two probably started fighting again. And the killer won… though if Tojo-san had won, she would be the killer.

“After Tojo-san’s death, the killer placed Tenko-san’s motive video in Tojo-san’s apron in order to frame her. However, the killer also wanted to hide the crime scene and hide the fact that they had worked together with Tojo-san, since it would ruin their alibi if we found out,” she takes a breath, “to do that they took down the tennis net in Hoshi-kun’s lab and used it to carefully lower the body out the window and into the pool room. They also threw one of the knives down, to make it seem like a one-sided attack. 

“The killer then likely took a moment to clean themselves up from the fight, as well as wash any blood off the net and the second knife that they then returned to the kitchen.”

“We’re not gonna use that knife to fucking eat food anymore, right?” Iruma interjects. 

“Ah, not now, Iruma-san,” Kiibo shushes. 

Kaede waits for silence before continuing. “The killer then likely snuck to our training spot and hid in the bushes, waiting for Kiibo-kun’s malfunction to start, and when it did, they grabbed one of the motive videos I had been carrying from my backpack. They ended up stepping on a branch, though we all assumed that it was something Kiibo-kun had done at the time.

“Finally,” she says. “The killer snuck their way back to the dorms, in order to make it seem like they had simply been there the whole night, and the only person the killer could be,” and her victory almost feels like one of defeat, “is Shinguji Korekiyo. Is that right?”

“Nearly perfect,” he answers. 

“Well,” says Maki. “Now that we’ve wasted enough time with that, perhaps we should begin voting.”

Then Kaede freezes. “Wait. Just because we know who the killer is, doesn’t mean we should vote for them.”

Maki’s stare becomes deadly. “You never listen do you? If we don’t vote for the killer—that you found yourself—then we will all die.”

“But if we vote for Shinguji-kun,” Kaede protests. “Then we might as well be killing him ourselves! We’ll be no better than Monokuma!”

“We’ll be alive,” says Maki. “And even if anyone here shares your half-baked ideals, I believe they’d prefer to keep living.”

“No!” Kaede shouts. “Don’t you get it? This isn’t just cruel—this is wrong! Shinguji-kun is our friend, and we’re condemning him to die to save ourselves. Can’t any of you understand that?”

The silence that meets her roars with meaning. 

Shinguji’s the one to break the quiet, and it nearly kills Kaede on the spot. “Akamatsu-san, I must say that I am truly blown away by your compassion, however, I already said that I fully accept this outcome.”

“How can you say that?” Kaede begs him. “Why aren’t you fighting?”

“Simple,” Shinguji says. “With Tojo-san’s death, I have achieved something I previously thought my imprisonment here had crushed any chances of completing. Now, I can die with no regrets.”

“But you’re still going to die,” Kaede argues. “You’re going to be executed.”

“Which admittedly is not the most preferable way to go, I am aware,” Shinguji says. “And I also must say your unyielding sympathy for me is beginning to make me regret not being able to introduce you to my sister as well, Akamatsu-san.”

She blinks. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing of great import now that it has already been completed,” Shinguji says. 

“Man you guys talk a lot!” Monokuma yells out from his chair. “Even after you have a confession, you insist on yapping on and on! So let’s get this voting show on the road!”

Kaede grits her teeth as she stares up at the bear. “I’m not voting.”

“Then we’ll have a second execution!” Monokuma declares. “Two for one deal!”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says gently. “Tenko knows you don’t want to, but you’ll die if you don’t.”

She clenches her fists. “I know, but I’m not about to be responsible for anyone else’s death.”

“So you’re going to make everyone else carry the burden then?” says Maki. “That’s rather hypocritical of you.”

“Harukawa-san,” says Kaede. “Stop talking like you understand what it means to feel guilty over someone’s death.”

Maki’s face turns dark. “What was that?”

“Kaede,” Momota says hurriedly. “Listen, we all get that this is a fucking shitty situation, but you can’t just fucking throw your life away.”

Ouma hums. “Is this the part where you bring up Saihara-chan’s death to guilt her into voting? That’d be rather manipulative of you, Momota-chan.”

Kaede’s stomach ties itself into knots at the familiar thought of Saihara’s execution. Momota clenches his fists. “I wasn’t going to fucking do anything like that!” 

Maki just shakes her head. “This is ridiculous. Can we start yet? The only person who has a problem isn’t even the culprit.”

Kaede begins to grow desperate. “Guys, come on. Think—what would happen if we all refused to vote? There wouldn’t even be a majority to decide if we got it right or not.”

Shirogane wrings her hands. “We’d all be executed anyway, right? Isn’t that in the rules?”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says again. “Tenko understands your feelings, but it is not worth your life. And,” she tries to smile, “Tenko thought of something else. While it is against the rules not to vote, you can still always vote wrong. There is no punishment for that as long as enough people vote for the culprit. As after all, nearly half of us voted incorrectly the first time.”

Maki rolls her eyes. “So Akamatsu can throw away her vote and claim the moral high ground while we all do her dirty work.”

“I have to say,” Shinguji weighs in. “That argument is deeply amusing coming from you.”

“What does that mean?” Maki snaps her head towards him.

“Nothing,” he replies. “It is not my place to tell.”

Monokuma huffs. “Are any of you brats listening? C’mon! It’s time to vote, vote, vote! Will your choice be the right one? Or the dreadfully wrong one?”

The small screen on Kaede’s podium lights up in front of her, and she accepts her hypocrisy as she votes for herself for a second time. 

The results come in much faster than last time, and with the exception of her one vote, it is unanimous for Shinguji. The students gather to the side of the stands, and Kaede does not miss the look of disgust Maki gives her. But then Maki is blocked from view, and Shinguji stands in front of her with a motive video in his bandaged hands. Kaede blinks up at the tall boy. “The video you took?”

“Yes,” he replies calmly. “I am unsure how much time Monokuma will give me, so I decided to do my most important task first.” He presses it into her hands. “I simply picked a video at random when taking one, though this one certainly was revealing.” He looks at Maki from the corner of his eyes. “If I was you, Akamatsu-san, I believe I would present its information sooner rather than later.”

“Thank you,” she replies, calmly taking the video from him. “And… I know. I’ll probably do it right after this…”

He nods. “See that you do.”

“Hey, Shinguji,” Momota calls out. “Feel like explaining yourself? You kind of having nothing left to lose, and you did kill the prime minister of Japan.”

“I did,” he replies evenly. “But, in my defense, I believe the prime minister would have killed me if I had not suggested cooperation.”

“What do you mean?” Shirogane asks.

Shinguji waves a finger. “Think what you will of me, but I am not a dumb man. Right before the bug appreciation party, I approached Tojo-san to trade videos as I had assumed from Kiibo-kun and Iruma-san’s switch that the videos were simply one-to-one. Later, when I discovered Tojo-san had lied about having my video, and with the knowledge of hers, there was little doubt in my mind that she would try to attack me, since I alone knew her secret.”

“So,” Gonta says. “Shinguji-kun had Tojo-san’s video in the first place?”

“I did,” he says. “And after viewing it, I felt compelled as a citizen to give it to her, and I admittedly also had my own plans at that point. The way Tojo-san described her life as being worth that of hundreds simply secured the decision for me.”

“So what?” Momota asks. “You just fucking decided to fight or something?”

Shinguji nods. “I weighed my options, certainly, and discovered that every outcome to a duel would be acceptable for me. If I lost, then I would be assisting the prime minister in escaping imprisonment. If I won and was not discovered, then I would succeed in my goal and leave here alive. If I won the duel and was found out, then I would still succeed in my goal and move on to the next life to be with my dearly departed sister.”

“And Kirumi just agreed?” Angie asks. “Did God tell her to?”

“I mostly believe she agreed because cooperation of the victim—in this case, me—would have created a murder that would be much easier for her to clean up and prevent the risk of finding a victim who would attempt to run or seek help,” he says. “It was a mutually beneficial situation for the both of us.”

Kiibo steps forward. “I understand that, but what is this goal that you keep talking about? Why would it benefit you to harm Tojo-san?”

Shinguji just crosses his arms. “I’m afraid that is a secret I will take to my grave. Though I may be a dead man walking, I am not compelled to answer your every question.”

“Yup!” cheers Monokuma. “And I personally am tired of chatty dead men! So let’s get to it!” 

And Shinguji simply bows. “Well then, I believe that is my cue. It was truly a pleasure to observe you all.”

Shinguji walks almost peacefully to his execution, and Kaede finds that she can’t bear to watch when the cauldron begins to boil. Through her fingers, she sees the odd image of the green Monokuma Kub shove the yellow one into the fire, and then another classmate she killed goes up in flames. 

Momota’s the first to speak, shaking his head. “Fuck man. At least he was okay with it, I guess, but still,” he lets out a sigh. “Fuck.”

Iruma trembles on the spot. “W-what you get for fucking killing someone… w-why w-would anyone ever risk that shit?”

Hoshi pulls down his hat with a sign. “You can’t just assume to know what another person’s going through. Seems like both Shinguji and Tojo had a lot more going on than we could have ever guessed.”

Gonta’s near tears. “Tojo-san and Shinguji-kun were still our friends though, right? Even though they both tried to escape, they were still our friends?”

“I’d like to think so,” Hoshi says quietly. “I guess we can’t know for sure, but we can only assume they wouldn’t have done what they did if they weren’t put into this situation in the first place.”

“Th-that’s right!” Shirogane says. “We can’t forget that Monokuma is still our real enemy, not each other.”

“Oh?” says Ouma. “Is that what you think? So should we all just believe in each other then?”

“Of course we should,” says Momota. “All we need to do is trust each other and work together, and we can stop this shit from ever happening again!”

“But didn’t Hoshi-chan just say you can’t guess what someone else is thinking?” Ouma replies. “So doesn’t that mean any of us could be planning something? Maybe someone’s planning something right now, after all.”

Momota shakes his head. “I don’t know what the hell you’re going on about, but I’m not about to listen to a little liar like you.”

“Everyone!” Kiibo says clapping his hands. “Please stop fighting! This is exactly what Monokuma wants us to do. Though things have been difficult, we did manage to get through this trial successfully. Now is not the time to turn on each other.”

“Then when is the time to turn on each other?” Ouma asks, tilting his head. “When the next motive comes? Or when someone else decides to reveal they’re secretly really important to the outside world?”

“Ouma-kun,” says Kaede, finally finding her voice. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but you should stop talking about Tojo-san and Shinguji-kun like that.”

“Oh? And why should I?” he says. “Thanks to them, this trial had the worst possible outcome.”

Kaede frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Tenko doesn’t understand,” she says. “We picked the right answer, and Shinguji-san even seemed okay with his death, even if it was horrible.”

“That’s right!” cheers Angie. “From that perspective, this trial had the very best outcome!”

“That’s wrong,” Ouma says simply. “A trial that ends with everyone playing by the rules and us all coming together and holding hands is by far the worst thing that can happen. And I,” an evil smile falls over his face, “intend to stop that from happening ever again.”

Ouma skips to the elevator without another word, even when Momota begins shouting curses after him. 

Angie takes the moment to clasp her hands together. “God doesn’t know what’s coming next, but he has told Angie to work extra hard to make sure everyone comes together peacefully.”

Gonta nods. “Gonta hopes that we can.”

“Aw, don’t hope Gonta,” Angie says. “Believe! And God and Angie will do everything to make sure we can all keep living together in peace.”

“Right,” says Kaede. “We all need to keep working and living together. No matter what happens.”

And Kaede pushes the brim of Saihara’s hat up as she moves forward to lead the group to the awkward elevator ride back up. Ouma greets them all with a beaming grin, and they reach their destination in silence. 

But at the top as everyone begins to file out, Kaede takes a deep breath as the weight of the motive video in her hands starts to become too heavy to keep holding alone. 

With everyone still gathered, Kaede says, “Wait, everyone, I have one more thing I need to announce.”

“Can it be fast?” Yumeno asks. “We argued all through breakfast… I’m so hungry…”

Kaede swallows nervously. “It will be quick, trust me. I just need to share the real reason why I proposed us having a screening for the motive videos.” She takes a deep breath and looks towards Maki. “Someone among us has been lying about their talent. And their real talent is very, very dangerous. I know because I got their motive video, so there’s no doubt.”

Tenko moves closer to her side protectively as Maki suddenly seems less like a human and more like a machine suddenly turning on. Kaede says, “Harukawa-san isn’t the Ultimate Child Caregiver. She’s the Ultimate—!”

And suddenly Kaede finds it impossible to breathe as two strong hands wind themselves around her neck and her feet leave the ground.

Maki’s red eyes stare into hers with a look of pure rage for a second before Tenko speeds forward to shove herself into Maki’s side with all her strength. 

Kaede falls to the ground, gasping for breath, and the other students explode into sound. Tenko’s in a battle stance between her and Maki, who is still staring at Kaede with an expression of death. Momota begins shouting. Hoshi moves to Tenko’s side while Kiibo jumps between the two girls with his hands held up defensively, Iruma screeching for him to move out of the death zone. 

With her eyes watering and her throat on fire, Kaede chokes out, “Harukawa-san,” and everyone stops to look at her. “Harukawa-san is the Ultimate Assassin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and with that chapter 2 finally comes to a close! A lot of people guessed the killer (though they did sort out most of the clues by that point, haha) but my goal for killers and victims is mostly to make the how and why interesting rather than to be shocking for the sake of it, so, hopefully this was interesting, haha. Also, though he died early, I tried to tie Shinguji's character into the greater arc of the story, so ideally he wouldn't just end up as the unsympathetic killer with no other impact. Whether I accomplished those things is, of course, up to anyone reading!
> 
> Also a quick note is that I will be taking a one week break to better plan out the nitty-gritty for chapter three, though I will still be posting something on Saturday. And as this is the end of a chapter (and I've reached the length of a short novel already), I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has been commenting, leaving kudos or just reading along!


	10. Daily Life IV

__

_Amami Theater_

__

_“They need time. They’ll come around. He still needs time, too, my first friend. Everyone always needs time._

__

_“I didn’t need time, but I was dead long before the ball came down and blood spilled over my eyes. Was I already dead when I fell out of the locker? It’s hard to say. I wish they’d come around faster, I want to say to them._

__

_“I like talking to you, but I want someone to talk back to me, and to tell me what the darkness felt like to them. Am I unique? I don’t know. I don’t know. I didn’t need any time at all when I woke up in darkness. I don’t know. Maybe I am unique._

__

_“My first friend isn’t in shock anymore. I helped him remove the arrow from his heart. He’s just sad now. It’s okay to be sad. I don’t know if I’m sad. I don’t know what I am._

__

_“I don’t know if they’ll ever forgive each other for sending each other here to me, to the darkness. They don’t speak to each other. It’s quiet in the dark._

__

_“When they do speak, they say my friend killed me, but I know that isn’t true. I was already dead before my blood spilled over my eyes. He says he lied for a pretty girl all in pink, and that’s why he’s here. He knows. I don’t know. Blood spilled out from his heart when I helped him remove the arrow._

__

_“More blood will spill. More blood. They all just need a little more time. My friend says the pretty girl all in pink is the one who killed me. I don’t know. I didn’t need any time. I forgive her._

__

_“I hope our next friends will forgive each other. Our next friends will come soon, in no time at all.”_

-

Maki’s lab is exactly as Kaede imagined it ever since she received the damning video. It feels like eons have passed since then, and she tilts her head up to stare at the line of knives mounted on the wall above her—the proof of everything staring back at her unblinkingly. 

On the landing, facing down eleven horrified people, Maki had turned on her heel and stomped off to barricade herself in her room. Despite the bruises Kaede knows will appear bright and painful on her neck, Maki’s retreat had been a silent surrender, and as she had walked away, not one of her classmates had followed after her. It was with a bitter, spiteful triumph that Kaede thought to herself that she had everyone on her side and Maki had no one. 

Any feelings of victory faded at the sight of the weapon cache before her that she and her fellow classmates were all too aware any one of them could use to brutalize each other. And, like clockwork, everyone jumps backwards when Ouma happily picks a gun off the wall to weigh in his hands. 

Gonta immediately positions himself in front of Kaede and none to subtly pushes Yumeno behind him. Iruma practically leaps to cover, bodily shoving herself into Kaede while Gonta raises both of his massive hands defensively. “Ouma-kun,” he says slowly. “Please put that down…”

Ouma blinks up at him and the semi-circle of teenagers ready to tackle him should he make too sudden a movement. “Oh? Is something wrong?” he asks innocently. 

“Quit fucking with us,” Momota says through clenched teeth. “Put that thing the fuck down.”

He pouts. “But it’s only a prop… and I thought it looked so cool…”

With wary eyes on Ouma, Hoshi experimentally steps forward to pick up another one of the guns. After a second of examination, he announces, “He’s actually not lying for once.”

A shared sigh of relief surges through the room, and Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “You guys don’t trust me at all.”

“You got that the fuck right,” Iruma says, finally releasing Kaede as her makeshift shield. 

“Well,” Shirogane says. “Whether we trust Ouma-kun or not—”

“Not,” Momota supplies.

Shirogane continues, “It isn’t really a person’s first instinct to think that a gun would be the least dangerous thing in this room. I mean, pointing a gun at someone is really traumatic…” she presses a hand to her chin, “so traumatic that if you point a gun at yourself, you could probably summon another version of yourself entirely…”

Kaede isn’t sure how to take her comment, so she says, “Well, that aside, we need to make a decision about what to do with this room. We can’t just leave all these weapons unattended.”

Angie skips over to her. “Ooh, is Kaede thinking about confiscating everything dangerous? God thinks that’s a super great idea.”

“I am,” she says. “But there’s always a chance Monokuma could just restock everything…”

“So just fucking throwing out this shit is useless?” Momota asks.

“I believe we can assume that is correct,” Kiibo responds. “Perhaps, then, we should look into locking this room instead of disposing of its contents.”

Kaede turns to him. “Oh, that’s actually a really good idea, Kiibo-kun.”

He beams. “Thank you, Akamatsu-san.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Angie cheers. “God says that we should definitely do that…” she puts a finger to her chin. “But Angie doesn’t know where we could find a lock.”

“Gonta could put something really heavy in front of the door,” he volunteers. 

“Nah,” says Ouma. “If you do that, then Gonta could always come back inside.” He grins. “And then he could grab one of these hammers and smash one of us into paste! Wouldn’t that be something?” 

Hoshi glares at him. “That would never happen.”

Gonta nods quickly in agreement. “Yes, Gonta would never do something like that. Gonta is a gentleman, and gentlemen… don’t smash people into paste.”

“Then gentlemen are boring,” Ouma says. 

“Ignoring all terrible boys,” Tenko says. “Attempting to move a heavy object up here would likely be incredibly difficult, even for someone with Gonta-san’s strength.”

Kaede looks to him. “We are on the third floor—that’s a lot of stairs to climb while carrying something big enough to block a door.”

“Hey, hey!” says Angie. “God just told Angie exactly what we should do.”

Yumeno hums. “Angie’s God is pretty smart…”

She clasps her hands. “Yup! Super, super smart! And God says that we should do what Kiibo said and just lock the door!”

Iruma snorts. “Yeah, but there isn’t a fucking lock. What do you want us to do? Dance around and pray to your shitty God to make one appear?”

Angie takes a step towards Iruma, something about her cheery demeanor darkening. “God says that Miu should make one.”

Iruma takes a step back. “Me?! The fuck does your shitty God want with me?!”

“No,” Kiibo says stepping between them. “I believe that Angie-san is saying that you should build a lock for the room, Iruma-san.”

She blinks. “Oh. Oh yeah, I could fucking do that. I mean,” she examines her nails. “If I want to. The great Iruma Miu is a very busy, very important, very attractive person, you know.”

“Yes,” Kiibo agrees. “And we would all deeply appreciate it if you would help us keep the group safe.” He turns to face only her. “We would be in your debt.”

Iruma begins to worry a piece of her hair between her fingers. “W-w-well if you’re going to get all sappy about it, I guess I could throw something together.”

Kaede nods. “Well, I personally think this sounds like our best solution.”

“Mhmm, God says so, too,” Angie says. “And he also says to make the lock extra, extra strong and not make a key!”

“Right,” Kaede says before turning to the group. “Anyone have any objections?”

Ouma hops up and down on the spot, waving his hand in the air. “Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!”

She sighs. “Yes, Ouma-kun?”

He stops bouncing and opts to tap a finger to his chin. “So, I was thinking that even if we leave barricading this room to the gross pig, what do we do about Harukawa-chan?” Kaede sees stars in his eyes. “Should we lock her in here, too?”

“No,” Kaede says. “I agree we should do something about her, but not that…”

“Yeah,” says Yumeno. “If we did that, then she’d starve to death…”

“And then we’d just have another class trial,” Angie says. “Oh, but if none of us find her body, then we wouldn’t!”

Gonta looks at her, mildly horrified. “Angie-san?”

Tenko gasps. “Isn’t that cruel and unusual punishment?” 

“So to put a stop to this horrible conversation,” Hoshi says. “I think everyone can agree that we’re… not going to do that.”

“Yeah,” Momota says proudly coming to stand beside Kaede. “We’re not about to fucking lock Harukawa up anywhere.”

And Kaede frowns. “I’m not sure if I can agree with that, either.”

Momota jerks around to stare down at her. His voice is one of betrayal, “Kaede, what the fuck are you saying? Do you actually want to fucking imprison her somewhere or—”

“No!” Kaede says quickly and a touch too loudly. The others quiet, attention focusing on her increasingly heated words. “Or—I don’t know!” she throws her hands in the air. “Even if Angie-san’s idea is terrible, we should still do something.”

“You can’t actually be fucking taking this seriously,” Momota says. 

“Listen to me,” Kaede says. “I don’t think we should trap her somewhere, but we also can’t let someone as dangerous as an assassin just wander around wherever they want unsupervised!”

“Well, we don’t know if she’s dangerous,” Momota bites back. “I mean, just because she’s killed people before doesn’t mean she’s going to do it again.” He flings an arm out to the side. “We trust fucking Hoshi, and he’s killed before.”

Hoshi sighs and pulls his hat down. Very quietly he says, “Don’t drag me into this…” and Gonta puts a large hand on his shoulder.

Ouma begins to sniffle and mumbles, “Mommy and Daddy are fighting…”

Their words go ignored as Kaede immediately fires back, “Harukawa-san tried to kill me in front of everyone! Did you already forget that?”

Angie claps her hands. “Kaito, Kaede! God says we shouldn’t fight!”

“But she just walked away,” Momota continues, speaking over her. “She’s probably just trying to protect herself, okay?”

“Protect herself?” Kaede echoes. “Do you really think the Ultimate Assassin needs protecting?”

“I don’t fucking know—maybe!” he shouts. “I don’t think either of us know her!”

“I don’t care about knowing her,” she says. “I care about stopping her from killing anyone!”

“We don’t know that she’ll kill someone!”

“And we also don’t know that she won’t!”

Angie hops from foot to foot between them and raises her voice to a yell. “God really, really means it that everyone should stop fighting right now!”

And Kaede does stop for a second, suddenly becoming pertinently aware of each and every nervous stare focused on her. Momota stops, too, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and staring at somewhere that’s not her. 

Kaede takes the opportunity to clear her throat and address the group. “Alright. That’s right. We’ll,” she makes eye contact with Momota for a brief moment, “we’ll talk about this later. We’ll calmly talk about this later.”

Momota huffs and crosses his arms but does not say another word.

Angie breaks the threatening silence. “Okay, so, so, so, now that everyone’s getting along again, God is wondering what we should do now.”

“I have a suggestion!” says a certain robotic voice. 

Monokuma pops up from seemingly nowhere, automatically earning the group’s undivided attention. 

Shirogane points an unsteady finger at him. “Y-you again! Are you here to give us another motive or something horrible?”

He waves his paw. “Nope! Not this time! It’s way too early in our extra spooky plot arc for our extra spooky motive.”

Kaede frowns at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about your extra spooky exploration!” he says. “Now where are my adorable children?”

At his cue, the three remaining bears appear. The pink and red ones huddle together, putting noticeable distance between themselves and the overtly robotic one who proceeds to take the lead. In a monotone voice, “WE-ARE-HERE.”

“Oh good, good,” Monokuma says. “Now, we can present the special exploration items for this time around. You should really thank your classmates for their noble sacrifices—especially since they bring super cool rewards!”

Kaede grits her teeth at his words. 

Yumeno says, “Does that mean more of the school’s going to open now?” She pouts. “I still haven’t eaten yet today, and now we have to walk all around again.”

“Ah, it’s okay, Yumeno-san,” says Tenko. “We can definitely take a break to eat before exploring. It is important to stay energized after all.”

“Is Yumeno-san ever energetic?” Shirogane wonders idly. 

“Anyway,” Monokuma tuts. “It’s time for my adorable children to show off our special items!”

Monodam’s motionless face seems to darken. “YOU-KEEP-ORDERING-US-AROUND, FATHER. AND-YOUR-ORDERS-ARE-STOPPING-US-ALL-FROM-BECOMING-FRIENDS.”

Monokuma tilts his furry head. “Oh? Are you speaking back to your father?”

The robot seems to glower. It mutters, “SOON,” in the same stilted voice before waddling over to Angie and lifting its paws up to display three odd items. “YOU-ARE-MAKING-SURE-EVERYONE-GETS-ALONG. HAVE-THESE.”

“Oh, thank you so much!” Angie says taking them easily. “Angie and God will do their best!”

Monodam nods. It turns, sending one more ominous stare to Monokuma before vanishing as quickly as it came. The remaining two exchange a worried look before following suit, leaving Monokuma behind.

“Ah, kids,” he sighs. “One day you’ll all learn what it’s like to be a parent. If you live long enough, that is.”

And he vanishes again as Angie takes center stage. “Okay, okay—Angie got some really cool stuff,” she says, shuffling the objects in her hands. “Which means we can do some super fun exploring!”

Kiibo nods. “I see. Should we split up to quickly cover ground like last time?”

“Mmm,” Angie hums. “Nope! God says that’s a bad idea since that’s how Kirumi and Korekiyo managed to fight with no one noticing.”

“That’s… right, isn’t it?” says Kaede with a sigh. “We need everyone to share information if we want to prevent another killing.”

“Oh?” Ouma asks, tilting his head to the side. “It sounds like you don’t trust us, Akamatsu-chan.”

To Kaede’s surprise, Iruma’s the one to come to her defense, loudly snorting and flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Well, fucking duh. People keeping secrets leads to bullshit. And also,” she jabs a finger into his skinny chest, “didn’t you say like twenty goddamn minutes ago that you were going to start fucking with us?”

He blinks his round eyes at her blankly. “Was that me? You must be mistaking me for someone else.”

Iruma lets out something akin to a growl before Angie interrupts. “Okay—so, if you guys remember, God just said we shouldn’t fight, sooo,” she moves to stand between. “God thinks you two should hug and make up!”

“Eww!” Ouma says, beginning to sniffle. “I don’t want to touch Iruma-chan! I’ll get all dirty!”

“Oh, what the fuck is that supposed to mean, you little cocksucking—!” Iruma shouts.

Angie clears her throat. “So, Miu, Kokichi, God is waiting.”

“And he’s going to be waiting a long goddamn time,” Iruma says. 

Though Angie’s smile does not falter, something about it becomes distinctly unnerving. 

Iruma cowers. “M-m-maybe we could just fucking shake hands?”

And her cheer returns. “Okay! God thought it over and says that works, too!”

Ouma puts on the most childishly disgusted face he can as the two shake hands, Angie overseeing them like a disapproving parent. Tenko takes the opportunity to approach behind her. “Ahem, Angie-san, perhaps now would be a good time for us to break for lunch before exploring? Yumeno-san is still hungry.”

“Ah, okay!” she says, turning to face Tenko and missing the way Ouma immediately yanks his hand out of her grip to begin wiping it on the empty sleeve of Momota’s coat, unbeknownst to its owner. 

Angie moves to head out of the room. “Everyone follow Angie! Since Kirumi’s not here anymore, God says everyone needs to work together to make lunch!”

She moves to stand just outside the door, watching the others exchange mildly dubious looks before following after her. Momota begins to move with the crowd when Kaede says, “Hey—maybe now would be a good time to have that talk.”

He turns to her with a sigh. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Kaede glances out the door and nods to Angie still waiting on the other side. “Angie-san, we’ll be just a minute, okay? We’ll catch up with everyone later.”

Angie seems to hesitate for a moment before shuffling the three strange objects under one arm to wave goodbye to them with her other. “Okay! But Angie will come to get you if you take too long!”

Kaede sends her a nod in acknowledgment, and Angie skips away. Alone in the room, Kaede and Momota stare at each other, quietly waiting for the sounds of Angie’s bouncing steps to fade completely. When they do, Momota says, “Alright. I’m not the kind of guy who apologizes for no reason, but I shouldn’t have picked a fight with you earlier. Not with everyone else around.”

Kaede nods grimly. “It… certainly did not make us look great in front of everyone, no.”

“No kidding,” he snorts. “And looks like Angie’s taking charge now, for better or worse.” He shakes his head. “Can’t believe everyone’s taking orders from fucking Angie.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that too much,” Kaede says. “Most of the others just kind of do whatever they want, no matter who’s in charge. And also,” she looks him straight in the eye, “we’re not skipping lunch to talk about Angie-san.”

“No, guess not,” Momota says, running a hand through his hair. “We should probably just… start fucking talking or something, yeah?”

“That is the plan,” Kaede says. “And I’ll start.” She squares her shoulders. “First thing’s first, and that’s that I don’t trust Harukawa-san, and I have no idea why you do.”

He sighs. “You really don’t fucking pull your punches, do you?”

“No, I don’t,” she says, crossing her arms. “Now will you tell me why you’re so insistent on taking Harukawa-san’s side over mine?”

“I’m not taking sides,” Momota says. “There are no sides besides us against Monokuma.” 

“Okay, fine,” Kaede concedes. “But just because Harukawa-san’s not our main enemy, doesn’t mean she’s our friend. I mean, look around this place—if she knows how to use even half of these weapons, then she is far too dangerous for us to just brush off as nothing.”

Momota frowns. “And I keep saying that just because someone fucking knows how to use a weapon doesn’t mean they will. And just because someone’s killed before doesn’t mean they’ll fucking do it again.”

Kaede shakes her head. “That is an awful lot of faith to just blindly put in someone, especially considering our situation.”

Their conversation lulls, Momota furrowing his brow and thinking hard. In the pause, Kaede feels the heat of her own face and body fueled by her unyielding anger alone. 

Momota gives her an odd look and finally says, “Is that why you think she’s going to kill someone?”

Kaede nods. “It is,” and her words echo through the arsenal. 

“Bullshit,” he says. “Like I said before—you trust Hoshi and he’s killed people.”

“Hoshi-kun’s different,” says Kaede. “And comparing the two is like apples and oranges. They’re obviously completely different people.”

“Maybe,” he says slowly. “But here’s the thing I’m having a lot of fucking trouble buying—it’s not just Hoshi, huh?”

Kaede narrows her eyes. “What do you mean?”

He ticks off his fingers. “Saihara, Tojo, Shinguji—they all fucking tried to kill someone and you fought fucking tooth and nail for them. Hell, whenever anyone even thinks about talking shit about them, you get angry. Face it,” he says staring down at her, “you’re fucking treating Harukawa differently.”

And the red swimming in her vision blocks out his logic. Kaede clenches her jaw. “That’s because it _is_ different when someone personally threatens you. Until you have someone actually try to strangle you, I don’t think I’m going to listen to your opinion about Harukawa-san.”

Momota sighs. “Fucking hell. Why are you being so goddamn stubborn about this?”

“So what if I am being stubborn?” Kaede asks, anger beginning to rise over her. “Even if I’m biased, it doesn’t mean I’m wrong. An assassin is an assassin. You can’t just ignore that!”

“But she’s also a fucking person!” Momota shouts back.

“She’s a ticking time bomb waiting to actually kill the first person who makes her angry,” says Kaede, dropping her voice to a hiss. “She’s not a sob story, she’s not our friend, and she’s not Tojo-san, Shinguji-kun, or Saihara-kun. She’s Harukawa-san, and she’s a monster.”

Momota clenches his jaw. “You’re not fucking changing your mind on this, are you?”

“No, I’m not,” she says.

“Fine,” he throws his hands in the air. “Then I’ll watch her.”

“You’ll what?” Kaede snaps.

“You said she needs supervision, so I’m fucking volunteering!”

Kaede’s about to shout at him when the sound of someone rapping their knuckles against the door causes both of them to whip around. Angie stands framed before them, bearing the same dark smile she wore just moments ago. “So Angie’s back now,” she says. “And she heard a lot of yelling on the way here.”

“Hello, Angie-san,” Kaede says, finding her emotional high suddenly deflating all at once. “Sorry. We were just talking.”

Angie hums. “Yeah, but Angie doesn’t think normal talking usually gets that loud.” 

“We’re both real fucking passionate,” Momota supplies. 

“Yes,” Kaede agrees, not looking him in the eyes. “And we’re just talking things out. That’s all.”

Angie tilts her head one way and then the other. “Sooo, God isn’t sure about that, but Angie came to get you guys, which means you should stop yelling and come with Angie.”

“We’ll be just one more minute, Angie-san,” says Kaede. “I just need…” she takes a breath, “I just need to remind Kaito that, our personal feelings aside, the safety of everyone in the group comes first.”

He nods. “Yeah, and I need to remind Kaede that Harukawa’s part of the group, too.”

“Okay, but, like, you guys should do that while we eat because Angie really wants to start exploring the school soon,” she says. “God’s getting really impatient, too, and it’s super, super important not to keep God waiting!”

Kaede’s head snaps to her. “Actually, Angie-san, you’re right. We are done here.”

Momota raise his eyebrows. “We are?”

“Yes, we are,” Kaede echoes. “We’ve simply decided to agree to disagree, and I’m sure Kaito will appreciate his new assignment of watching over Harukawa-san.”

“Ooh, is that the plan for what to do with Maki?” Angie asks. 

“Apparently,” Momota says slowly, eyes still trained on Kaede. “Which means… we are fucking done here, I guess.”

Angie clasps her hands. “Then let’s go eat! Everyone tried their hardest so it has to be super good!”

She skips ahead, and trailing a few feet behind her, Momota mutters out of the corner of his mouth to Kaede, “So you’re just giving in? Did you hit your head when I wasn’t looking or something?”

Kaede frowns. “No. I’m just giving you everything you wanted. You should be happy.”

“And that’s not fucking giving in because…?” he prompts.

“Because I know you’ll see how bad an idea it is,” Kaede says. “And because I know that since you’re as stubborn as me, letting you try is the only thing that will convince you.”

They walk in silence for a few moments before Momota finally says, “So if I fuck up and Harukawa attacks someone, you win?”

Kaede shakes her head. “No, if that happens, I’m right. If you succeed in somehow convincing her to stop being a bloodthirsty assassin, then I win.”

He snorts. “Either way, everything’ll fucking coming up Kaede. Is that right?”

“As long as everything works out,” she says staring straight ahead. “That’s the plan.”

-

Arriving to their lunch of noticeably mediocre food, Momota immediately looks around and asks for an extra plate of food to bring to Maki. Kaede barely resists rolling her eyes, even as Momota insists that the other girl is likely as hungry as they are. 

Angie merrily shuffles something together for him, and he leaves with a noticeably weak nod to Kaede. She does roll her eyes when the cafeteria doors swing shut behind him before taking a seat between Tenko and Iruma, the former cooing over Yumeno’s eating and the latter describing the flavors in near grotesque detail to Kiibo.

To Kaede’s surprise, while Kiibo seems appreciative, Yumeno instead huffs and bodily shifts away from Tenko. “Stop saying that,” she mumbles. “I’m not a cute animal… I’m just tryin’ to eat…”

Tenko freezes. “Ah! Tenko is sorry. She just meant—”

“Just eat, okay?” Yumeno says. “I don’t wanna talk about being cute and helpless or anything…”

“T-Tenko understands,” she says quickly. “And Tenko is sorry again.”

Kaede looks over to them. “Is everything alright?”

Tenko’s head snaps to her. “Everything is fine, Kaede-san. Yumeno-san is just a bit grouchy since she hasn’t eaten yet today. That’s all. Also,” she frowns. “Are you and Momota-san fighting? Does Tenko need to flip him?”

“No,” Kaede says. “Well—no to the flipping. He’s still hurt, whether he’ll admit it or not.”

“Since Tojo-san… isn’t here anymore, Tenko can check on his injury,” she says. “Also Tenko thinks that Momota-san should probably sit out of exploring then, even though we said everyone should go. Standing for hours at the trial was probably not good for him.”

“And running around the school would probably just make things worse, yeah,” Kaede adds. “I doubt he’ll listen to me right now, though.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Yumeno says, leaning towards them. 

Tenko quickly waves her hands. “Ah, nothing you need to worry about, Yumeno-san. Tenko has it under control.”

She pouts. “But I wanna know… do I need to use my magic to find out?”

“There is no need for that, Yumeno-san. We were just,” Tenko shoots a glance to Kaede for confirmation. “Talking about Momota-san.”

“Oh,” Yumeno says. “Why are you talking about him?”

Tenko sends Kaede another wary look, prompting her to sigh before answering. “I suppose there’s no reason to keep it a secret,” she says. “Kaito and I just had a disagreement about Harukawa-san, and,” she tugs at the brim of her hat, “and it ended with him volunteering to supervise her, even though he’s hurt and she’s dangerous.”

“But there is no need for you to worry about Harukawa-san, Yumeno-san,” Tenko says. “Tenko will always protect you and Kaede-san.”

“No one’s trying to hurt me, though,” Yumeno says. 

“Well, Tenko knows that,” she says. “But Tenko is still always ready to use her Neo-Aikido whenever Yumeno-san needs any help.”

Yumeno doesn’t say another word, simply staring at her blankly before returning to her eating.

Tenko beings to sweat and after anxiously staring at her for a few moments, turns to Kaede to loudly whisper, “Kaede-san, did Tenko do something wrong?”

Kaede glances around her to watch Yumeno for a second. “I don’t think so…” she whispers back. “Everyone’s probably just a little on edge because of this morning.”

Tenko bites her lip. “That makes sense… maybe Tenko should still apologize to Yumeno-san again.”

Kaede about to respond when Angie stands from her spot next to Gonta and Hoshi to clap her hands. “Hey, hey everyone! Angie has something to say.”

“Boo!” Iruma shouts. “Sit down!”

Angie ignores her. “So Angie was thinking, and God told her the absolute perfect solution for what to do with all the motive videos we have left.” 

Hoshi’s glare has been trained on her since the moment she stood, but now his eyes narrow dangerously. “And that would be?”

“We take all the videos,” she begins, “and we throw them in Maki’s lab! That way when Miu locks the door, nobody can see them again, and then nobody will want to leave the school.”

Iruma leans back in her chair. “Eh, I guess if you idiots manage to take care of it before I slap a lock on that bitch, sure.”

“Awesome!” Angie says. “So we all agree then?”

“No,” says Hoshi. “We don’t.”

Angie hums. “Yeah, but see the thing is God told Angie that we should do it, so that’s what’s going to happen.”

“We don’t have to do anything because your God says so,” Hoshi says. 

“Ryoma,” Angie says leaning down to stare at him. “Do you still want to leave the school?”

Hoshi doesn’t back down an inch. “Everyone,” he says. “Wants to leave this hell school.”

“Oh, but see, Angie doesn’t!” she says. “And Angie thinks that people wanting to leave the school is our problem—so God says we need to do everything we can to stop people from wanting to.”

“Angie-san,” Kaede says, standing as well. “Think about what you’re saying. Getting rid of motives to make us kill each other is a very different thing from stopping everyone from trying to escape.”

“That’s right,” Kiibo says. “I have no problem disposing of potential motives, but abandoning any hope of leaving is undeniably a bad thing.”

“Yeah, what Kiibs said!” Iruma shouts.

He nods. “Thank you, Iruma-san!”

“That’s right!” Ouma says. “What Kiiboy said!”

Kiibo falters. “Uh, thank you as well, Ouma-kun…”

“Well it looks like everyone agrees then!” Angie says. 

“I don’t think that’s what just happened,” Shirogane quietly interjects.

“So after we’re done exploring,” Angie continues. “Angie will collect everyone’s motive videos, and we can just lock them away.”

“Out of sight out of mind…” Yumeno mumbles. “That sounds like a pretty good idea…”

“No,” says Hoshi. “It doesn’t.”

Angie sighs. “Look, Ryoma, even if you don’t agree, God really says we should soooo, that’s what Angie’s going to do. Okay?” She clasps her hands. “Everyone’s happy then?”

An uncomfortable silence greets her, but Angie pays it no mind as she hops back down in her chair to continue eating, not a care directed to Hoshi’s barely concealed fury. 

Lunch continues on awkwardly, and eventually Momota limps back into the room, quickly moving to sit across from Kaede with only a nod in acknowledgement. Kaede opts to leave it at that for the moment and makes conversation with Tenko, punctuated by Yumeno’s occasional comment. When Angie finishes eating, she stands to move to the center of the room again. Kaede and Tenko look up at her. Momota continues to quietly shovel food into his mouth. 

“Alright,” she begins. “So Angie was looking over the items we got and there’s a funny scroll thingie, a funny hammer, and an even funnier key!” She extends the hammer towards Gonta. “God says Gonta should take the hammer since he’s really strong.”

Gonta accepts it but looks up at her quizzically. “Thank you, Angie-san, but Gonta thought everyone was sticking together?”

“Oh, we are!” she says. “But like not everyone together-together. God told Angie we should check around outside first and let Miu start making the lock for Maki’s lab while everyone else explores.”

“Wait, why the fuck am I the only one being left out!?” Iruma asks leaping to her feet and slamming her hands down on the table.

“Gonta still doesn’t know why he got a hammer…” Gonta mumbles to himself.

“Well, if we’re only missing one person when we explore, God says it will be totally okay!” Angie says. “And Gonta got a hammer so he can hammer!”

Gonta looks down at the small object in his hands, absolutely baffled. 

Hoshi sighs and gently takes it from him. “Don’t worry—I’ll help you figure out what to do with it. We’re supposed to figure out this puzzle together anyway.”

Gonta smiles down at him as Kiibo assures Iruma, “Do not worry, Iruma-san, I can fill you in on everything that happens.”

Iruma turns to him, face flushed pink. “You’ll fill me in?”

“Aw, everyone’s getting along now!” Angie says. “See what happens when everyone listens to Angie?”

“Okay, okay!” says Ouma jumping to his feet. “That’s enough waiting around—let’s go explore!”

He hurries out of the room, Angie following after him, shouting, “Kokichi! Wait for everyone! God says we all need to go together!”

Gonta stands. “Uh, wait! Gonta still has the hammer!” and he, too, begins to speed walk after them, Hoshi at his side. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Hoshi assures him as they exit. “They’ll figure out it’s missing soon enough.”

Kaede takes the opportunity to rise from her chair. Addressing the remaining students, she says, “Well, we should head after them. Everyone ready?”

Tenko energetically shouts, “Tenko is ready!”

Yumeno drawls, “But I was still eating…”

“You can fucking shove your face later,” Iruma says, walking over to Kaede. “If you put on more fat, maybe then you’ll actually get some tits.”

Kaede’s about to reprimand her, when Iruma leans closer to her ear, and whispers in an actually quiet voice for once, “Oi, Bakamatsu, try and see if you can fucking sneak away from the orgy for a sec, and come to my lab. There’s some shit I need to tell you about.”

Kaede furrows her brow and says in a matching hushed tone, “Is it about the thing we found in the bathroom?”

Iruma shrugs. “Dunno. Kinda. But I need your advice about something, got it?”

Kaede nods. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

Momota rises as well, and says, “You two wanna tell us what you’re whispering about?”

“Yes,” Shirogane nods, walking over as well. “Angie-san has been saying we shouldn’t keep secrets from each other.”

“Oh, um,” Kaede looks around the room quickly for inspiration. “Iruma-san was just asking me…” she spies Kiibo approaching, “about getting a present for Kiibo-kun. That’s all.”

He frowns. “Iruma-san wants to get me a present?”

“What?” Iruma pulls a face before Kaede quickly elbows her in the stomach. “I mean—yeah,” she grumbles. “We’re... throwing you a surprise party or something, I don't fucking know.”

“Oh, but,” Shirogane says. “It’s not much of a surprise now…”

“No because all you ugly, nosy virgins ruined it!” Iruma shouts, throwing her hands in the air. She begins to storm off. “Whatever, I’ll be in my fucking lab.”

Kiibo immediately runs after her, calling, “Wait, Iruma-san! Why are you throwing a party for me?”

“So,” Momota says. “I’m going to fucking go out on a limb here and assume there’s no surprise party for Kiibo.”

Kaede sighs. “Well, there is now. Come on everyone,” she begins to walk towards the door. “We can talk on the way.”

They exit the cafeteria, and Kaede lets herself fall to the back with a slightly limping Momota. Tenko and Shirogane quickly get into a conversation about idols and clothing, Yumeno moving along silently at Tenko’s side. The two girls’ voices are just loud enough for Kaede to comfortably talk under them once they exit the school and leave the echoing halls behind.

Still looking forward at the backs of the three girls, she says in a measured tone, “So, how did it go with Harukawa-san.”

They continue in silence for another moment before Momota responds, “Well, she asked me if I wanted to be killed, so pretty good so far.”

Kaede gives him a wry smile. “So are we counting giving her lunch and leaving alive as a win?”

He sighs. “Well just because round one didn’t go so great doesn’t mean I’m giving up.” He grins down at her. “I am the great Momota Kaito, you know.”

“I do think it’s come up a few times,” she laughs before shaking her head. “It’s weird. I still feel I’m right, but I also feel like I should apologize.”

Momota nods. “Yeah, I get that feeling sometimes. So usually I just keep my mouth shut.”

“I think it’s called having too much pride,” Kaede suggests.

“You might be right,” he says. “Also you should probably know I still think you’re wrong about her.”

“I’m sure you do,” Kaede says. “Even if all she did was threaten you.”

Momota frowns. “Well, that’s not really how it went. I think she was mostly just fucking surprised anyone would come to see her at all.” He shrugs. “Sometimes people fucking lash out when they don’t know what to do.”

“But that still doesn’t mean it’s okay or that you should put yourself at risk,” she says. “Especially since you’re still hurt.”

He rolls his eyes. “I am not hurt.”

Then from ahead of them, Tenko calls out, “Yes, you are!”

Momota laughs. “Eavesdropping on us, Chabashira?”

“Tenko was not eavesdropping,” she insists, falling back to walk alongside them. “But she did notice the way you’re attempting to hide a limp.”

“I am not,” he says.

“Oh, but you really are,” Shirogane adds, falling in step with them as well as they descend the outside stairs. “I can always tell when a cosplayer is having trouble walking in their outfit at a convention, so examining people’s walking patterns is kind of a sixth sense for me.”

“Well, you’re senses are going fucking haywire because I’m fine,” he says before sweeping an arm out to gesture to the small group standing in front of an odd statue. “And we’re fucking here, so you can all get off my back.”

Yumeno chooses to tune into the conversation. “Oh, is someone offering piggyback rides?” she asks.

“Tenko can give you one, Yumeno-san,” she says quickly.

“But we’re almost there,” says Shirogane.

Sure enough, Angie spies them and immediately begins waving her arms, beckoning them closer. Kaede straightens her shoulders and leads her group to meet Angie’s, the girl in question immediately talking as they approach. She says, “Oh, yay! Everyone finally made it.”

“Yes,” says Kiibo. “With the exception of Iruma-san, who I escorted to her lab.”

“Ah, that’s right,” says Angie. “Oh, and Kaede, Kiibo was just telling Angie that you and Miu were planning a surprise party for him.”

Kaede winces. “It seems… things have certainly panned out that way.”

“Well, Angie just thinks that is the best idea, and God says that Angie should help, too!” she says. “Ooh, we can throw a party for Kiibo _and_ have Himiko put on a magic show, and that way everybody will be having so much fun, nobody will want to leave.”

Gonta raises his hand. “If it’s not too impolite for Gonta to ask, why is there a surprise party for Kiibo-kun?”

“Yeah,” says Ouma. “I thought nobody liked the useless robot.”

“W-Well, obviously you are wrong!” Kiibo says, too fed up to think clearly. 

“Oh, but anyway,” Angie says. “God says we should plan that later and put this weird scroll thingie in this weird statue thingie first.”

She moves to do just that, and as soon as it clicks into place, a large building begins to form itself before their very eyes in a matter of seconds. 

Tenko is the first to react, immediately pointing and shrieking with delight, “It’s a dojo!” and rushing forward to swing the doors open. 

The others follow after her, entering inside the large room before seeing Tenko standing firmly in front of them with one hand held out in front of her. “Tenko says shoes off before stepping on the mat.”

Kaede immediately looks down at the floor, noticing the large training area before moving to remove her shoes. Angie slips off her sandals the quickest and begins bouncing around the room, while the already barefoot Gonta moves forward to begin examining the large moving statue in the back. 

Kiibo—also already barefoot in his own way—tentatively steps on to the mat, testing the waters for Tenko’s ire at the action. She looks at him and grunts noncommittally, prompting him to keep moving. He idly wanders around, saying, “So this is Chabashira-san’s lab.”

“Yes!” says Tenko. “Ah! Tenko is so excited!” She drops into a battle pose. “Quick, who wants to spar with Tenko?”

Finally stepping on to the mat and towards Tenko in her socks, Kaede says, “I’m not really sure if anyone here should—whoa!!!” and suddenly finds herself being flipped upside-down.

She lands on the mat in heap. “Ow, Tenko-san,” Kaede says sitting up and rubbing her suddenly sore arm. “What was that for?”

Ouma’s jumping around excitedly. “Ooh! Ooh! Do Kiiboy next!” Kiibo immediately moves as far away from Tenko as possible, though does not verbally rise to Ouma’s baiting. 

Tenko ignores him and looks down at Kaede with a sympathetic expression. “Kaede-san,” she says softly. “Tenko can always tell when her opponent’s heart is in turmoil.” Tenko reaches a hand forward to help her up, which Kaede takes. “You can always talk to Tenko, you know.”

“Ah,” says Kaede, fiddling to adjust Saihara’s hat back into place. “I know, I’ve just,” she takes a breath. “Things have been busy lately...” 

She nods. “Kaede-san can still come talk to Tenko anytime.” She shakes her head and lowers her voice so only Kaede can hear, “No one should carry that much guilt around by themselves.”

Kaede swallows. “I know.” She gives Tenko her best smile. “But a leader has to out on a brave face sometimes.”

Tenko frowns. “We already talked about—oh, Yumeno-san,” she says, and Kaede looks down to see Yumeno suddenly standing right at Tenko’s side. 

Yumeno says, “You guys sure whisper a lot.” She places a finger on her lip. “Maybe I should cast a hearing spell or something on myself…”

“Ah, there’s no need for that,” says Tenko. “Oh, but, Yumeno-san, would you like to spar with Tenko?”

She juts out her lip. “I don’t really—ahhhh!!!”

And Kaede barely stifles a laugh as Tenko suddenly flips Yumeno to the ground in the same way she did to her only moments earlier. 

Laying flat on her back, Yumeno mumbles, “Whyyyyy…” before Tenko leans down to extend a hand to help her back to her feet. Yumeno regards it warily before taking it and pulling herself back up. Brushing her skirt off, she says, “Ugh… my waist hurts…”

Tenko nods at her. “Tenko is sorry, but, Yumeno-san,” she says gently. “You shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed.”

“Afraid or embarrassed about what?” Yumeno asks.

“Showing emotions,” says Tenko. “Or being included. Or useful.” She smiles down at her. “Yumeno-san just needs to be herself, even if it’s hard, and everyone will love her. Tenko knows because Yumeno-san has a beautiful heart.”

A slight blush creeps across Yumeno’s face and she pulls her hat down before muttering, “Yeah, uh, thanks…” and scurrying away.

Tenko watches her leave and asks for the second time that day, “Did Tenko say something wrong?”

“No,” says Kaede. “I think she’s just a bit embarrassed at being complemented by a cute girl.”

Tenko’s face suddenly erupts into an even brighter blush. “A-Ah! Saying things like that to Tenko all of a sudden…”

Then Momota approaches, bouncing slightly on the mat. “Wow, you’re pretty cool, Chabashira,” he says. “You can just, like, fucking read people’s minds.”

And then her blush turns to a frown. “It’s not that simple. Tenko can just sense people’s emotions when she is in the heat of battle with them.”

“Eh,” he waves his hand. “Same difference. Oh, you know who you should fucking totally do next?”

“Who?” Tenko asks.

Momota grins at her before cupping a hand around his mouth, “Hey, Ouma! Come over here!”

Tenko curls up her lip in disgust. “No.”

The smaller boy skips over to them. “Oh? Is my beloved Momota-chan calling for me?”

“Yeah,” Momota says. “Hey, Chabashira, do your thing.”

“Hmm?” he tilts his head. “What thing?”

Tenko rolls her eyes and looks to Kaede. “Does Tenko have to?”

Kaede shrugs. “I don’t know. It could be fun.”

Tenko lets out an aggravated sigh. “Fine.”

Ouma’s pouting saying, “Are you guys keeping a secret from me because—ahhhhh!!!” before Tenko suddenly lifts him off his feet and throws him back down on to the mat in the same motion as before.

Unlike Kaede and Yumeno, he sits up immediately, pointing an accusing finger at Tenko. “Hey! That was a dirty trick!”

Momota snorts. “You fucking saw her do it before. You even volunteered Kiibo.”

Instead of listening, he begins to sniffle, tears welling up in his eyes. “Everyone picks on me all the time, and now I’m getting beat up.”

“Oh, stop crying,” says Momota. “It can’t fucking hurt that much since Kaede and Yumeno aren’t complaining.”

Ouma looks up to him, lip trembling. “But my bones are made of glass, and my skin’s made of paper.”

Momota rolls his eyes, finally reaching a hand down to him. “You’re a delicate fucking flower. I get—hey!”

And with a hard yank on his arm, Ouma pulls Momota to the floor as he jumps up, giggling at the taller boy’s yelping. Momota’s back on his feet in an instant, awkwardly chasing after him and waving one fist in the air.

Kaede looks on vaguely amused before spying Tenko’s expression of confusion. “Tenko-san?” she asks. “Is everything alright? You went quiet all of a sudden.”

Tenko shakes her head—shaking herself out of thoughts about something Kaede can only guess at—before turning back to her. “Oh, um, Tenko’s fine. She was just thinking about something.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kaede asks.

“No,” Tenko says quickly. “Tenko means—Tenko still needs to think a little.” She shakes her head again. “Actually never mind, it’s nothing. Tenko just… got a little confused.”

Kaede regards her carefully, but says, “Okay, if you’re sure.” Then she glances around the room, particularly at Ouma and Momota’s chase that seems to be consuming all of her classmates’ attention. “Also, would you mind maybe distracting everyone for a little while?” Kaede asks. “I need to go talk to Iruma-san, and I don’t want anyone to miss me.”

“Tenko can do that,” she says. “But why is talking with Iruma-san something you want to keep secret?”

“Ah, no reason,” says Kaede, already moving to slip her shoes back on. “But, uh, if anyone does ask where I am, just tell them that I’ll meet them all at the top of the outside staircase to keep exploring with everyone.”

“Okay,” Tenko says. “Tenko will try… but is something wrong, Kaede-san?”

Kaede looks up at her and almost all of her classmates happily entertaining themselves like the big group of friends she always wanted them to be. And that very thought becomes almost too painful to bare when she thinks about the reason for why she has to sneak around. She finishes slipping on her shoes and lies that, “No. Everything’s fine,” before waving a still hesitant Tenko goodbye.

-

Kaede raps her knuckles against the door to Iruma’s lab, softly calling, “Hey, Iruma-san, it’s me.”

Through the door, she hears the distinct sounds of metal crashing against metal, followed by a serious of curses before the door cracks opens to reveal one of Iruma’s eyes. She says, “You alone?”

Kaede nods. “Yes.”

The door is pushed open a few inches wider, and Iruma’s arms darts through the opening to drag Kaede inside through the uncomfortably tight gap. Kaede quickly gathers herself on inside Iruma’s lab while the other girl slams the door shut and takes to clicking an intricate series of locks shut. 

Kaede watches her, and says, “Has your lab always had so many locks?”

Still focusing on her current task, Iruma says, “Nah. There were a few at first, then they fucking disappeared then I decided to put a fuck ton back.”

“Why?” she asks. “Are you worried about someone stealing something?”

She shakes her head and finally turns back to Kaede, brushing her hands off. “Nah, I’ve just been working on a few fucking top secret projects, which,” she walks past Kaede to her work table, “I’m about to show you, so hold on to your tits.”

Kaede grimaces but follows her. Iruma shuffles around with a few things stacked under the table before presenting a strange hammer like object and two circular objects that unnervingly remind Kaede of grenades. She lowers her head to get a closer look at the inventions and says, “is it alright if I touch these? They look… not safe.”

Iruma snorts. “You can fucking shove one up your ass, and you’ll be fine. These babies will only hurt if you’re made of metal and circuits.”

Ignoring her specific choice of words, Kaede gingerly weighs one of the grenades in her hands. “So,” she says, thinking over Iruma’s warning. “It shuts down machines?”

“Yeah,” she says picking up the other. “It’s an EMP bomb. The hammer’ll do the same thing if you ram it in something’s ass.”

“Okay?” Kaede says. “So... I think I have three questions.”

“Shoot.”

“First,” she says. “Why do you have these? Second: why are they secret? And third, why did you want my opinion?”

Iruma places the EMP grenade back on the table, rolling it around absently in thought as she debates how to phrase her next statement. “So, answering second question first, these are secret since I think the mastermind would smash them to pieces and then shove them down my fucking throat if they found out.”

Kaede’s head snaps up to look at her. “Wait, could these be used to shut down some of the school’s defense systems? Like the Exisals?”

“Yup,” Iruma says. “Throw one of these suckers at ‘em and goodnight to the teddy bears and their fucking mechs.”

“I see,” Kaede says. “And that’s why you made them, right? To fight back against Monokuma?”

“Wrong,” says Iruma. “I made them because someone asked me to.”

Kaede can physically feel the tension in the room rise. She puts down the EMP grenade she had been fiddling with. “Who?”

“Ouma fucking Kokichi,” she says. “Few days ago, the little twink came down here and whined at me until I agreed.”

Kaede just blinks at her comment. “Ouma-kun… wanted these…” She furrows her brow. “Did he say what for?”

“Nope,” Iruma answers. “For all his fucking crying, the brat got real goddamn cagey the second I actually tried asking him anything. Then he ran off and told me to have them done by today. Which brings me to your third question,” she leans forward on the table. “Do I actually give this shit to him?”

“That _is_ a good question,” Kaede says. “But, Iruma-san, why are you asking me this?”

“Because,” she says leaning even farther towards Kaede and jabbing a finger at her chest. “You’re one of the few people in this shit hole I trust.”

And for some reason, that’s the statement that catches Kaede off guard the most. “You trust me?” she echoes.

“Oi, don’t fucking say it like that, Bakamatsu,” Iruma huffs. “It’s not a sappy besties thing, it’s a ‘I know you’re not the goddamn mastermind’ thing. And,” she returns to pointing her finger at Kaede, “After seeing shit shows one and two with Shyhara and Shitguji, I’m pretty damn sure you’d never even fucking think about killing anyone in a million years.”

Kaede fidgets uncomfortably with the brim of Saihara’s hat, but manages to say, “I do… suppose that is true. But, um, Iruma-san,” Kaede almost pleads, “I can’t be the only person you trust.”

Iruma tilts her head, thinking for a moment before saying, “Well, Kiibo’s pretty good, I guess. Oh yeah! That’s right,” she picks one of the grenades up again. “So since goddamn Ouma asked me to make this shit a while back, I safeguarded Kiibo against them.”

Kaede blinks at her. “How did you do that? Do they just not work on him?”

“Oh, no, they’ll fuck his shit,” she says. “But during his last maintenance—you know when Tojo poured crap all over him?—the great archangel Iruma Miu had the foresight to set up a back up system, which means if his brain gets fried ‘cause Ouma’s a fuck, we can save his brain and download him into something else.” She frowns. “I mean, rest of his circuits will be fucked to hell and back, but his A.I. will save itself.”

Kaede nods, mulling her words over. “I think I get it… but,” she bites her lip. “Do you think Ouma-kun asked for this stuff just to mess with Kiibo-kun?”

“Hell if I know,” Iruma answers. “I mean, I wouldn’t put it past the little brat, but, then again, that’s why I’m calling you in for a second opinion.” 

“I see,” Kaede answers. “Also, speaking of Kiibo-kun, we might be throwing a party for him now since he may have told everyone.”

“Well, fuck me,” Iruma says. “I was just gonna slap some flashlight eyes that I was fucking making anyway on him and call it good.” She sighs, pushing her hair over her should. “Oh, well, I guess there’s worse shitty people to have to make crap for. Like fucking everyone else.”

Kaede watches her quietly before saying, “I don’t think a party’s the worst idea, you know--even if we had to come up with it on the spot. I think that maybe since it’s for Kiibo-kun, we could do a memorial for everyone…”

Iruma falls silent for a moment before muttering, “Guess he did like Tojo a lot…” her spirits return as she lets out an undignified snort, “and you’re still fucking pining after Shyhara, so yeah, whatever—guess nobody’ll fucking think twice if we do something like that.”

“Um, right,” Kaede says, wincing at Iruma’s justification. “But, um, a-anyway, are you,” she gestures to the objects still lying on the table, “um, going to give these to Ouma-kun?”

Iruma shakes her head. “Dunno. Like, it could completely fuck us if I did.” She leans even closer, whispering conspiratorially despite being alone. “Like, you think he’s the mastermind or something?”

“No…” Kaede says slowly, stepping back from the table. “If anything… isn’t this stuff all proof that he’s not? I mean, if these things shut down part of the security system, I think the mastermind would want it destroyed immediately. Asking for them to be made is out of the question.”

“Makes sense…” Iruma frowns but nods. “So… that means on the mastermind countdown, it’s not me, you, or fucking Ouma,” she says. “And we can count out all the dead assholes, so…”

Kaede crosses her arms and begins to walk towards the door, Iruma following after her. “I’d also hazard a guess that the mastermind is probably a girl since we, well, found the passageway through the girls’ bathroom.”

“Yeah, but fucking girl or boy,” Iruma says, “they’d still need it to be empty as shit before they wander into a supply closet for no damn reason.”

Kaede nods again. “That is true… which means that it could still be almost anyone. Or at least, we can't automatically eliminate anyone as a suspect.”

“And, Bakamatsu,” Iruma says, moving to the door and beginning to undo the series of locks, “we can only fucking trust each other, you got that? This shit stays locked the hell down between us.”

“I know,” says Kaede to her back. “And you should probably also give Ouma-kun the stuff you made then—to not raise his suspicions.”

She groans. “Ugh, fine,” and she finishes undoing the last lock. “You know I _really_ hate that pasty little twink, though—fucking hell!” Iruma physically jumps backwards as through the same tiny crack in the door she had opened previously for Kaede, an eye peers in from the other side. 

Giggling erupts from outside, and Kaede moves to push the door open to see Ouma grinning up at her. “Ouma-kun?” she asks, trying to hide her panic. “Uh, what are you doing here?”

“Sneaking away like you,” he answers. “Chabashira-chan’s lab is pretty boring, so I figured I’d come follow you.”

Iruma pulls Kaede back to frame herself in the door and thrusts a finger at him. “Were you just fucking standing out there waiting to scare the shit out of me?”

“No,” he says. “I’d never do a thing like that. Do you know how rude it is to scare people?” He hums. “Actually you probably do, since you’re already pretty scary.”

Kaede can hear Iruma grinding her teeth together. “Listen here, you little shitstain—”

“Alright, that’s enough!” Kaede says, pushing past Iruma to stand between them. She clears her throat. “I was just checking to see if Iruma-san finished building a lock for Harukawa-san’s lab so she could come with us for the rest of the exploration.” 

Iruma looks at her quizzically for a few moments before dully saying, “Yeah. It’s almost fucking done. Just been busy with,” she waves her hand vaguely as if to summon an idea, “Kiibo’s fucking surprise party or some shit.”

Ouma regards them for a moment before sighing. “Hmm, one day I hope you two learn how to lie,” he says nonchalantly. “Otherwise playing this game with you is going to be one boredom after another.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Kaede says.

He laughs, saying “Nothing, nothing!” before pulling on one of her hands with both of his. “Now, c’mon, Akamatsu-chan! Everyone’s waiting for us!”

With his meager strength, Kaede mostly lets herself be dragged along by Ouma, sending one last glance and a wave to Iruma, standing alone in her lab and with their shared secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, and I'm back to start chapter three! Thanks to everyone for being patient with this update and to anyone who did decide to check out the oneshot I did end up posting since I kind of consider that to be my master piece, haha.


	11. Daily Life V

Kaede pulls her hand out of Ouma’s grip as they stumble away from Iruma’s lab. He turns on his heel to face her and immediately starts pouting. “Aw, do you not want to hold hands, Akamatsu-chan?”

She ignores him to issue her own accusations. “What were you doing outside of Iruma-san’s lab?”

He rolls his eyes. “I already told you—I was looking for you after you snuck away from Chabashira-chan’s Aikido party.” His smile stretches too far for his face. “It was rather rude of you to just wander off without telling anyone.”

Kaede takes a step towards him. “I’m asking the questions here—were you trying to listen in on us?”

Ouma tilts his head. “Why would I do? Were you talking about something secret?” 

“No,” she says and walks past him back towards Tenko’s lab. “We weren’t.”

“Is that so?” he says following after her. “Because I think I heard you guys talking about things that Iruma-chan said you weren’t going to tell anyone else.” 

Kaede whips around to face him when he starts to laugh. “That was a lie of course, though.” Kaede clenches her fists but doesn’t respond. Ouma just keeps smiling. “Geeze, why are you so angry, Akamatsu-chan? Have a guilty conscience?” 

“No,” she answers again, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t.”

“Well, that sure is strange,” Ouma says. “I mean, if I was you, I sure would have one. Or maybe you’re just getting to be a better liar already.”

Kaede practically hisses out, “What are you talking about?”

Ouma grins up at her, and the doors to Tenko’s lab burst open. He lowers his voice and says, “Maybe next time, Akamatsu-chan,” and the sound of Momota shouting in the distance brings any attempt at an interrogation to an end.

Kaede turns towards the sudden explosion of noise to see Momota point a finger at Ouma and stopping over, yelling all the way while the others follow behind him. “There you are, you fucking brat!”

“Oh, hi, Momota-chan!” he says, childlike cheer returning to his voice. “Were you looking for me?”

“Fucking quit the crap,” Momota says. He reaches them and leans down to glare at Ouma’s beaming face. “I knew you’d fucking cut and run the second I had my back turned.”

Kaede looks between them and says, “What’s happening?”

“Momota-chan’s threatening to beat me up for no reason,” Ouma says nonchalantly. “Seems like he’s having a pretty good time, too.”

Momota’s face begins to turn red as Tenko hurries over to them, pulling Momota backwards to physically place herself between the two boys. “What’s happening is that all awful boys are going to calm down right now, or they will have to answer to Tenko’s Neo-Aikido.” 

“Yup, yup,” says Angie, skipping over. “God still says no fighting.”

Tenko gives her a way look, but says, “Tenko has to agree. Especially for Momota-san.”

“What!?” he whips his head towards her. “Why me? He’s the one who started it!”

“And Tenko’s the one who had to help you when you slipped on the mat and hurt yourself _again_ in Tenko’s lab,” she chides. 

He rolls his eyes. “It was just a little fall—I’m fine.”

In the back of the group, Gonta’s wringing his hands but says, “But Momota-kun seemed really winded afterwards…”

“No kidding,” Hoshi mumbles.

Momota pivots on his heel to wave his arms dramatically. “I was just fucking surprised is all! Fucking God, will you all get off my case about this shit—I keep saying I’m fine!”

Angie tuts. “Oh, Kaito, talking about God that way is a sin.”

“And then maybe Angie-chan’s God will break your leg, too,” says Ouma.

Momota rounds on him again, “And don’t think I’m fucking done with you.”

“Ooh,” he says. “Is Momota-chan going to chase me again?” He takes off running towards the outside stairs back up to the main gardens, calling back, “Careful not to trip on the stairs and break your skull!”

Shirogane muses, “What an oddly specific warning…”

Hoshi nods. “Speaking of which, this might be a kind of morbid question, but I’ve been thinking,” he pauses to fiddle with a cigarette as he suddenly becomes the center of the group’s attention. “What happens if someone does just die from an accident?”

“That is a good question,” Kiibo says. “I suppose in the event of… of a suicide, we would simply vote for the victim since… technically they did it as well. But for just an accident…”

“Yeah,” says Yumeno. “But fallin’ down some stairs is different. Do we vote for the stairs?”

“But, there isn’t a button at the trials to vote for anything that’s not one of us,” Shirogane says.

Kaede crosses her arms. “I don’t really like suggesting this, but I suppose we could ask Monoku—”

“Okay, so, Angie asked God,” she says, “and he says that it’s kind of not important since nobody else is going to die, so it’s all okay, and we don’t have to worry!”

Gonta blinks at her. “God said that?”

“He totally did,” she answers. “And God also says that as long as everyone listens to Angie, we can all live here peacefully for forever!”

“Forever?” Yumeno says. “That’s a really long time… like the longest time I can think of something taking…”

“Uh, well,” Tenko says nervously. “That is kind of because it is, Yumeno-san.”

Hoshi takes a step toward Angie. “So first of all, none of us are going to live in this godforsaken school forever, and second, you’re contradicting yourself.”

Angie tilts her head. “Hmm? What are you talking about Ryoma? God says you should really calm down.”

“I am calm,” he says, voice lowering dangerously. “I’m just saying—what if we all do live here forever? What if we all follow your terrible idea and live here until we die of old age? Then what?”

“Oh, Ryoma,” Angie says. “You’re over thinking it! You just have to listen to God, and he’ll tell you everything you need to know. Actually, you know what?” she leans down towards him, “Angie thinks that praying to God would really help with all your doubt and anger issues, Ryoma.”

“I don’t have anger issues,” he hisses back. 

Gonta shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot. “Um, Gonta doesn’t think you have anger issues, Hoshi-kun, but he also doesn’t think his friends should fight…”

Angie claps her hands. “Oh, Gonta, that’s exactly right! God is super impressed with you!”

“God… is?” Gonta asks. 

“Yup, yup, yup,” Angie says. “Aaaand God also says we should all keep exploring.” She stands on her toes and looks up at the staircase. “Ah, it looks like Kokichi went ahead of us.”

“Oh,” Yumeno says. “That’s not good… because we all need to explore together, right?”

“Mhmm!” says Angie. “Wow, Himiko, you and Gonta totally get what God’s saying.”

“We do?” she asks.

Momota darkly mutters to Kaede, “I _really_ don’t like where this is going,” and she nods in agreement.

Angie says, “Totally! Also Angie asked God while we were in Tenko’s lab, and he says we should go to that funny door on the third floor next.”

Tenko nods. “One of the times was a strange key, right Angie-san? That door was very strange, so Tenko will protect the girls if we find any danger.” She glances over to Momota and Kaede. “And Momota-san as well because he is injured.”

“I am _not_ ,” he groans. “None of you fucking listen to me…”

“God says that’s a great idea, Tenko,” Angie replies as she begins to lead the group back towards the school, the others shambling after her merry skipping. “Angie’s starting to think that Tenko understands about God, too.”

She frowns. “Uh, that could be a possibility, Angie-san…”

Hoshi rolls his eyes, and mutters under his breath, “I have a feeling this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better…”

Kaede’s trained hearing picks up his words. Up ahead, she sees Angie chattering to Yumeno, a hesitant Tenko, and now Kiibo as well about her religion. Kaede whispers back to Hoshi, “you know, I’m starting to think you might be right.”

Then, just at the edge of her hearing, Kaede catches Gonta saying, “was that one of the… or is that… no…”

She moves to walk instep with him. “Is something wrong, Gonta-kun?” she asks quietly, noting Hoshi almost protectively moving to Gonta’s other side. 

“Uh, oh, no,” he says quickly. “Gonta just thought… Gonta just thought he saw something.”

“Oh yeah?” says Hoshi. “What was it?”

Gonta furrows his brow. “Well, this probably sounds very strange… but Gonta keeps seeing… really fast bugs.”

Kaede frowns. “I thought you said there weren’t any bugs out here.”

“That’s… Gonta isn’t sure,” he says. “Because Gonta couldn’t find any when he searched, and when he tries to look at the bugs, they disappear… but that doesn’t make any sense… Gonta’s sorry for bringing it up.”

“No,” says Hoshi. “It makes perfect sense. It’s like when I do my flash stepping, right?”

Gonta turns to him, some of his old cheer returning to his voice, “Oh, yes, Gonta thinks it’s exactly like that!”

“So,” Kaede says. “There are some really fast moving bugs out here?”

“That’s Gonta’s best guess,” he says. “But… Gonta hasn’t been able to get a very good look at them.”

“Maybe I could help you try and catch one,” Hoshi says. “They’d probably be happier up in your lab anyway.”

“Oh, thank you, Hoshi-kun,” Gonta says. “After we finish exploring, Gonta will look and you can try and very gently catch them.” He frowns. “But then we should do something Hoshi-kun wants to do afterwards—it’s only fair.”

Hoshi waves his hand. “Don’t worry about it. Taking an afternoon off to go bug catching sounds like fun.” Ahead of them, Angie’s voice spikes in her rambling, and Hoshi scowls. “More fun than whatever other nonsense is probably in store for us.”

Gonta looks down at Hoshi nervously, and Kaede tries to smile for his sake. She offers the best false words of encouragement she can, “Oh, don’t say that, Hoshi-kun. Everything will probably be fine.”

He looks up at her appropriately dubious to her newfound optimism after their conversation only moments ago. “Is that right?” he says slowly.

Kaede nods. “Mhmm, I think… everything will work out, and even if it doesn’t, there’s no point getting worked up over something that hasn’t even happened yet.”

Gonta smiles and Hoshi gives her a long look, and Ouma’s words ring in Kaede’s head. They move with small talk floating between them, and Kaede’s mind runs over Ouma calling her a better liar over and over again.

-

They find Ouma waiting for them on the steps up to the fourth floor, sitting on the top stair and swinging his short legs. “Maaaan,” he says. “You guys are soooo slow. Probably ‘cause you had Momota-chan with you.”

Tenko frowns. “Is that an insult to Momota-san’s intelligence or a reference to his recent injuries?”

Ouma jumps to his feet. “Both!”

Climbing the stairs, Momota only grumbles halfheartedly to Ouma as he passes, “I’m still gonna kick your ass one of these days.”

Ouma salutes him. “I’ll look forward to it, Momota-chan.”

Shirogane mumbles, “It sure is a good thing Iruma-san isn’t here…”

Angie continues to lead the group and though she doesn’t verbally say express that she thinks the door is dangerous, she chooses to turn to Kiibo to present the key. “God told Angie that you should totally be the one to open it, Kiibo.”

He takes the key, and Ouma says, “Ooh, that’s a good idea—that way if it’s booby trapped, we’ll only loose the expendable robot.”

Kiibo rounds on him. “I am not expendable!” 

“Oh, Kiibo-kun,” says Shirogane. “I don’t mean to be rude, but if you did get caught in an explosion or booby trap or something, couldn’t Iruma-san just rebuild you?”

“W-Well, maybe,” he concedes. “But that doesn’t mean I am going to just recklessly put myself in danger!”

“So are you going to open the door or not then?” Momota asks.

Kiibo looks between the group who have noticeably taken a few steps back and the odd door behind him. With a deeply resigned sigh and a note of trepidation, he places the key in the door, and the entire opening suddenly begins to shine with light before the door crumbles into nothing before their very eyes. Kiibo stands in place, staring agape at the new opening.

Ouma skips over to him, leaning to peer down the new opening and says, “Ah, Kiiboy, you broke it…”

“I-It did that on its own…” he says as the others slowly move past him to inspect the passageway. 

“There would appear to be another staircase,” Tenko announces. “Yumeno-san, would you like Tenko to carry you?”

Yumeno frowns, and makes herself the first to begin mounting the new steps. “I can walk on my own…” she mumbles.

“Ah, wait, Yumeno-san!” Tenko says chasing after her. “It could be dangerous.”

Gonta nods. “Chabashira-san is right. Everyone should stay behind Gonta, and—wait, Ouma-kun!” 

He calls out the last part as Ouma speeds ahead of the group, quickly overtaking even Tenko and Yumeno ahead of them.

Gonta seems to falter, and Hoshi says, “Let him go.”

“Yeah,” says Momota. “I mean, there’s worse thing than loosing fucking Ouma, you know?”

Kiibo seems to take offense to that. “Momota-kun, it is very rude to say that about your classmate, even if he is… difficult. Also,” he points an accusing finger at the group as a whole. “If you truly believe that is so, why did you make me open the door?”

Angie brushes past him. “So, God says we should keep going, and that Gonta should go first.”

“Alright,” Gonta says. “Gonta will do his best to protect everyone if there is anything dangerous ahead.”

The fourth floors sprawls and its strange, oppressive atmosphere spread before them at the top of the stairs. Gonta noticeably tenses at the strange sight. “Gonta will… Gonta will make sure everyone stays safe.”

Momota steps out from behind to look around. “This place is creepy as shit, I’ll give you that.”

Shirogane nods as she noticeably pales at the sight. “Y-Yeah… everybody should probably stay close together…”

“Speaking of which,” Kaede says. “Looks like Tenko-san and the others already ran off somewhere.”

“Well that was fast,” Hoshi says.

Shirogane gasps. “You know, this place does seem like it could be haunted—do you think a ghost got them?”

“A-Absolutely not!” Momota says quickly. “D-Don’t even joke about that shit. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“Oh, but there is,” Angie replies. “God says that spirits are all around us.”

Kiibo looks at her quizzically. “Do… do you sense any spirits right now, Angie-san?”

“Y-Yeah!” says Momota. “I mean, not that I fucking care…”

She tilts her head to one side and then the other. “Hmm… nope! Right now Angie says thinks we’re alone, and…” she closes her eyes and steeples her hands. “And God says we should start our investigation by going…” She jabs her finger forward suddenly down a hall with three odd doors lining it. “That way!”

“So, you think we should check out those rooms?” Kaede asks.

Angie nods. “Yup, starting with the middle one!”

She casually begins to skip down the creepy hallway, Gonta hurrying to run alongside her as she pulls the middle door open.

Tenko and Yumeno are already inside, and both turn to look at them. “Ah, there you guys are!” Angie cheers walking over to Yumeno. 

Tenko furrows her brow and looks between Angie and the rest of the group filing in. “Tenko is glad to reunite with everyone, but how did you know we were here?”

“Oh, God told Angie,” she says. “And he was totally right!”

Yumeno hums. “Really? That’s pretty impressive…”

Angie’s near permanent smile brightens a few degrees. “God is so, so impressive, Himiko.”

“Anyway,” Kaede says, coming to stand near Tenko. “I know we weren’t separated for very long, but did you guys find anything?”

Tenko uncomfortably clears her throat. “Yes, Tenko and Yumeno-san already investigated the first room in this hall. It would appear they are all the same, though Tenko has not examined the last one.”

“That’s good,” Kaede says, glancing around to take in the dark room with its creaking floorboards and dim candle light. “Also… these rooms are really unsettling, aren’t they?”

Shirogane seems to shudder. “It’s so eerie in here. I’m almost waiting for a ghost or a demon to just suddenly pop up behind me…”

“D-Don’t say shit like that!” Momota yells. “Demons and ghosts and crap aren’t fucking real! E-Everyone knows that!”

Hoshi looks up at him. “Do you know that?”

“Of course I do!” he shouts. “I just—I just really fucking hate people who buy into all that magic and o-occult crap is all.”

Yumeno suddenly rounds on him. “Magic is real.”

“What?” Momota says. “No, it’s not.”

The most emotion Kaede has ever seen crosses her face. “Magic is real. Magic is real. Magic is real. Magic is—”

“Oh, hey, Himiko!” Angie says suddenly, snapping the other girl out of her chanting. “God just gave Angie the best idea. What if we hold your magic show in these rooms?”

Yumeno’s previous burst of energy seems to flick off like a light switch, and she drawls, “You think we should do it up here?”

“Totally!” Angie says. “You can do a trick in each room to have a three act show. And the atmosphere up here is super perfect for a magic show!”

She puts a finger to her lip. “Maybe… I guess we could do that… it’d be kinda hard to move my stuff up here.”

Tenko jumps to attention. “Tenko will assist Yumeno-san in moving any supplies she needs.”

Gonta shyly raises a hand. “Gonta could help, too.”

Angie clasps her hands. “Perfect!”

Kaede decides to be the voice of reason. “While that sounds like a nice idea, we should probably investigate the rest of this floor first just to make sure it really isn’t dangerous.”

“Ah, good point, good point,” Angie says. “Also, Gonta still needs to use his hammer, which means there have to be even more mysteries.”

Yumeno slumps her shoulders. “I’m tired of solving mysteries…”

“Oh, don’t worry, Himiko,” Angie says. “God will help guide us to all the answers, no matter how hard the puzzle is. All you need to do is pray, and he’ll give you the answer.”

“Is that true?” Gonta asks.

Hoshi shakes his head. “Mostly just sounds like an excuse not to really try or take responsibility.”

“Though I know this may sound a bit illogical,” Kiibo says. “I have to agree with Angie-san. Whenever I have moments where I do not know what to do, I listen to my inner voice for guidance.”

“You mentioned that earlier,” Kaede says. “Is your inner voice… your conscience?”

“No, Kaede,” says Angie. “It’s obviously God.”

And with that she walks across the room to embrace Kiibo in a hug. He startles at the action. “Uh, Angie-san?”

“It’s okay, Kiibo,” she says. “Angie is just super happy to hear you’ve opened your heart up to God, and it’s amazing that he’s speaking back to you. Angie is so proud of you.”

Something in his expression seems to change and his previously stiff posture begins to relax. “You are?”

“Mhmm, and God is, too,” she says. “And as long as God is with you, you’ll never be forgotten or alone.”

Kaede can almost physically see the words warp around Kiibo’s head and heart. “I’ll never be alone…” he echoes.

Angie seems to be almost glowing even in the dimness of the room when she releases him. “That’s right. Okay then,” she claps her hands. “God says we should keep moving.”

The others part before her as she exits, Kiibo quickly scurrying behind her, swept up in her wake. Gonta moves after them to offer his protection, and Kaede finds herself nearly stunned until she notices Tenko moving into the corner of her vision. “Kaede-san…?”

She shakes her head. “I’m fine. Just—it’s nothing.”

Tenko seems unconvinced, but says, “Okay.” She lowers her voice. “Kaede-san, if you don’t mind Tenko saying, you’ve been acting a bit odd lately.”

“Odd how?” Kaede asks.

Tenko shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot. “Secretive, mostly. You don’t have to hide everything from everyone else. Ah, sorry if it’s not any of Tenko’s business…”

Kaede opens her mouth to respond when she notices Yumeno approaching again, a sharp pout on her face. “Oh, Yumeno-san,” Kaede says. “Did you need something?”

Yumeno looks up at them with her eyes narrowed, and Tenko jumps to say, “Oh, Tenko and Kaede-san aren’t trying to hide anything from you—we were just talking.”

“You were whispering,” she says. “You always whisper things all the time and get really quiet whenever I wanna ask what’s happening…”

“Ah, sorry, Yumeno-san,” Kaede says. “I promise it’s nothing important—just something the two of us were trying to figure out.”

“I could help,” she offers. “I could use my magic or something… I don’t have any MP right now, though.”

“That’s okay, Yumeno-san,” Tenko says. “Tenko and Kaede-san have the situation under control. There is no need for you to worry yourself.”

She frowns. “But I could help…”

“Tenko knows,” she says. “Tenko knows Yumeno-san is very strong, but she also wants to protect her.”

“Well, knock it off.”

Tenko’s eyes widen, and she calls out, “Yumeno-san!” as the smaller girl shuffles out of the room. 

From the doorway, Momota watches her leave, and turns back to Tenko to say, “You two having a fight or something?”

“I-It’s none of your business,” Tenko snaps at him. “Tenko is just… Tenko is…” She shakes her head, and calls out, “Yumeno-san, please wait! Tenko is sorry!” as she runs after her for a second time.

As Tenko disappears, Momota looks back to Kaede, awkwardly standing before her remaining classmates. “Well,” she says. “I think… they’re just having a little trouble understanding each other. I’m sure everything will work out.”

Shirogane nods. “Hmm, the best friends fighting due to miscommunication plot arc is pretty common…”

“Sounds like it’s a little more than miscommunication,” Hoshi says.

Momota snorts. “Sounds like Chabashira wants to be a little more than friends.”

“And it sounds to me,” Kaede says, walking past them back towards the doorway. “That gossiping about people behind their backs is really rude.”

“Eh,” Momota shrugs. “I can do it Chabashira’s face, too.”

Kaede rolls her eyes as she pushes the door open. “I’m sure you would.”

-

They find the others almost immediately. Outside of an intricately decorated sliding door, Kaede spies Tenko nervously standing to the side, watching only Yumeno despite the smaller girl markedly putting Gonta and Kiibo between the two of them. Kaede also hears Angie chanting words of encouragement, and notices that—with the exception of Tenko—everyone’s gazes are trained on Ouma kneeling in front of the door’s handle.

She leads her group of four over, and Momota calls out, “What are you guys doing over here?”

Angie turns to them and raises both of her arms in greeting. “Angie found Kokichi! It turns out he’s been trying to pick this lock.”

Kaede raises her eyebrows. “Why is there a locked door?”

“Oh,” says Shirogane. “Maybe it leads to the next part of the school that will open up.”

“I don’t even fucking know you could lock a sliding door,” Momota muses. “Can’t you just punch a hole through it or some shit?”

“That’s plan B,” Ouma says, speaking up from his spot on the ground. “Plan A is I just unlock it so Monokuma doesn’t punish me.”

Shirogane blinks at him. “Monokuma is going to punish you?”

“Mhmm,” Ouma says, still concentrating on the lock. “He said he needed the door open real so but lost the key, and I’ll get in super bad trouble if I don’t open it.”

Kaede frowns. “Are you lying, Ouma-kun?”

He shrugs. “Could be! But do you think we should just leave this secret door locked up? It could contain something really important if Monokuma did want to keep it away from us…”

“So you were lying,” Hoshi says flatly.

“Maybe!”

Kaede lets out an exasperated sigh. “Well, either way I guess you make a decent point. Go ahead.”

Ouma laughs. “Ah, Akamatsu-chan thinks I need her permission.” He stands up with a huff. “Hmm, I’m getting bored of this. Hey, Gonta,” he says. “Can you just rip the door off?”

“Huh?” Gonta looks at him, absolutely bewildered. “You want Gonta to do what?”

“Ooh, yeah!” says Angie. “Gonta can totally rip the door out, and then we can see what’s inside!”

Gonta looks around at the group, clearly hesitant. Ouma continues to prod him. “C’mon, Gonta. There’s probably some super important secrets in there that will let us escape! Don’t you want to help save everyone?”

“G-Gonta does,” he says. “But is damaging the school against the rules?”

Kiibo frowns. “That is a good question, Gonta-kun. It seems there are many holes in Monokuma’s rules.”

Shirogane quickly says, “I-I’m not sure what we should do—and we definitely shouldn’t ask try to ask Monokuma—but it’s probably okay? I mean, he didn’t seem to have any problems with Shinguji-kun taking down the net in Hoshi-kun’s lab or say anything against our plan to try to lock Harukawa-san’s lab…”

“That’s also true,” Kiibo says. “However, I still can’t help but worry for Gonta-kun’s safety…”

“Oh, hey, Kiibo,” Angie says. “Angie really thinks now would be a great time to ask God for guidance. Just try praying and see what comes to you. Angie’ll also pray to help, too.”

“I… will try,” Kiibo says, bringing a hand to his chin. “My inner voice—God, I mean… says…” He looks up at the others and nods. “God says Gonta-kun should open the door.”

“Yay!” Angie cheers. “You did it, Kiibo! Now all we need to do is have Gonta rip it to pieces!” 

Gonta looks down at the two nervously and begins nervously wringing his hands. “Well, Gonta could try…”

Hoshi moves forward and says much more calmly, “It’s okay. Ignore them. Either inside this door is something Monokuma doesn’t want us to get, which would be a good thing, or it’s a place we weren’t meant to explore, which would also be a good thing. Also,” he looks around for a moment. “We’ve been talking about this for a while, and Ouma’s probably been trying to pick the lock for longer. Think one of the robots would’ve said something by now.”

Gonta takes a deep breath. “Okay—everybody stand back, and stay behind Gonta.”

The others immediately move away from the door, and Gonta places one of his large hands on either side of the sliding door. He seems to pause for a moment, readying his grip and then with one mighty pull, he yanks back and the door comes free in his grip, pieces of wood from the top and bottom, raining down in splinters. He stumbles back a few steps, the remains of the door held crumpled in his large hands.

It’s only then that Monokuma appears. “Hey!” he shouts, waving his paws in the air. “What are you doing breaking the school!?”

Gonta looks down to the door still in his grip and back up to Monokuma. “Uh, G-Gonta is sorry! Gonta can put it back!”

Shirogane looks at him quizzically. “C-Can you?”

“Gonta can try,” he says, walking over to the now gaping opening, awkwardly shoving it back against the now torn boards as more splinters flitter out and litter the floor. 

“That, uh, doesn’t seem to be working, big guy,” Momota says.

Monokuma huffs. “Geeze, this is what happens when you leave kids your age alone—the second I turn my back you’re tearing down walls and listening to rock ‘n’ roll. Remember parents, supervise your demon brats.”

Kaede decides to put an end to his rambling. “So, can we go in this room or are you going to try to stop us?”

Monokuma tilts his furry head. “Hmm, this room? Weeeell, I do have a rule about locking talent labs if the owner’s already dead… buuut, I think I can make a very special exception for this very special room.” He brings his paws to his mouth. “For a very special reason. Actually I was kiiiinda planning on popping it open anyway.”

“This is a talent lab?” Kaede asks. “And also…” she turns to look back at Ouma. “Did you actually ask Ouma-kun to open it for you?”

“Maaaybe,” Monokuma replies. “Just a little bit of I scratch your back, you scratch mine! That’s the way things work in the bear kingdom.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait just a fucking second,” Momota says, rounding on Ouma. “Are you fucking working with Monokuma?”

Ouma rocks back and forth on his heel. “I don’t know. Would you guys believe me either way?” He grins. “Because you didn’t before.”

“That’s because you lied,” Kaede says.

“Oh, but see,” Ouma says. “Sometimes you guys like lies and sometimes you don’t, so sometimes, I just have to guess.” He sighs, “But everyone always gets so mad at me either way…”

“Stop trying to play the fucking victim,” Momota says. “Monokuma literally just said you two made a deal.”

Ouma just stops for a second before raising his eyebrows at him. “You’re taking Monokuma’s word over mine,” he says wryly. “Hmm, it sure is interesting what starts to become the truth if you believe hard enough.”

“And just what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!” Momota shouts, taking a threatening step towards him, splinters crunching under his weighted step.

Angie jumps between them. “Okay, so,” she begins. “Kaito, Angie knows you’re mad at Kokichi for some reason, but you should really calm down.”

“‘For some reason!?’” he squawks. “He just practically admitted to being the fucking mastermind!”

“Hmm, no,” says Angie. “Because, see, God says there isn’t a mastermind or anything like that.”

Kaede blanches. “What? Did you,” she shakes her head. “Angie-san, what are you saying?”

She turns to Kaede. “Angie’s just saying there’s no mastermind. Didn’t everybody know that?”

“No,” Kaede says. “Everybody didn’t. Because there is.”

“Oh, Kaede,” she says, disappointment lining her voice. “Of course there’s no mastermind, silly. Everyone here is friends, you know? And God thinks it’s really bad to doubt your friends like that.”

“Ah, but Angie-san,” Tenko says warily. “If there is no mastermind, then why are we trapped here?”

Angie seems to consider this for a moment, pressing a finger to her lip before saying, “Okay, so God says there might be a mastermind, but it isn’t one of us and trying to look for one would just lead to people turning against each other.” Her smile begins to darken. “And then we’d just end up back in the trial room!”

“A-Ah, I guess that is a good point,” Shirogane says, hugging her arm. “Also… I really don’t want to think that anyone here would do something that horrible to us…”

“Gonta doesn’t want to either,” he says, dropping the atrociously battered former door to the ground. “Gonta doesn’t believe any of his friends would do that.”

“So,” Ouma says inspecting his fingernails. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, can we explore this room or…?”

“Ah, of course, of course,” Monokuma says. “You know, they say it’s important to foster children’s growing curiosity so one day it will get them killed!”

“Tenko does not believe there are any sayings like that,” she says.

“Maybe there aren’t,” he says. “But I think of myself as a nurturing father either way. So go explore, find adventure and treasure!” His mouth curls into a smile. “Just don’t touch a certain little black book treasure just yet, though. I want to be around for that part.”

With that he vanishes, leaving the group to stare at each other in a shared moment of hesitation. 

Momota, predictably, is the first to break the silence. “So the room’s okay, but,” he returns to glaring at Ouma. “You were still fucking working together with Monokuma—admit it.”

Ouma blinks up at him. “I don’t really understand why you care so much, Momota-chan. Aren’t we all working with Monokuma?”

“Oh, don’t fucking try and turn this on me,” he says.

“Hmm, okay,” he says, already skipping towards the new, gaping opening. “I’m bored with this conversation anyway.”

Momota just lets out an aggravated groan before looking around at the group as a whole. “Does literally no one else have a fucking problem with this?”

Angie steps forward. “Kaito,” she says. “Angie really thinks you need to put your personal problem with Kokichi aside and make up with him.”

Momota snorts. “Yeah, and maybe tomorrow Amami’ll rise from the dead.” He waves a hand, and through the doorway. “Whatever, we went through all this fucking hassle to check out this room, so we might as well check it out.”

“I have to agree,” Kaede says. “Even if it’s starting to sound like this was part of Monokuma’s plan anyway, we should probably still see if there’s anything useful inside.”

“Like another Flash Light?” Kiibo volunteers. 

“Getting some more answers would be nice,” Hoshi says. 

“Alright, but, but, but,” says Angie. “If there is another Flashback Light, everyone has to promise that it won’t make them want to leave the school.”

“Because trying to leave the school will only cause another murder?” Yumeno guesses.

Angie claps her hands. “Ah, you’re totally right, Himiko!” She reaches forward and takes one of Yumeno’s hands in hers. “Himiko, Angie thinks that you should really consider listening to God more. He told Angie that you would be absolutely perfect for it.”

“I would?” she asks. 

“Yup! And God’s never wrong,” says Angie before tugging on her arm. “Now, c’mon Himiko—God says we should pray to him in here!”

The two girls head through the gap. Kaede’s about to announce to the rest of the group her intentions to lead them through as well, when she hears Momota’s voice shouting on the other side. 

“H-Hey!” he yells. “Stop fucking waving that thing around!”

Then, Kaede glances through the opening and spies the very strange sight of Momota hopping around Ouma, now in possession of a very long, very gold sword. She picks up the pace to a slight jog as she moves to defuse the situation. “What’s going on in here?” she asks.

Ouma’s eyes gleam with a childlike excitement as he experimentally slashes the sword down through the air. Momota leaps back again, yelling, “I told you to put that fucking thing down!”

“Ah, nothing’s happening, Akamatsu-chan,” he says. “Momota-chan’s just being panicky and irrational like usual.”

Behind her, Kaede hears Hoshi say, “Are you using some really old, probably really valuable artifact as a toy?”

“Probably!” Ouma says, swiping it through the air again, making his own sound effects as he does so. “Swish!” 

“Fucking stop that!” Momota says. “You’re going to stab someone’s fucking eye out!”

“Though Tenko does not approve of this,” she says. “She also doubts that will happen as Ouma-san has not removed the sword’s sheath.”

Momota immediately stops in his panicking and takes a better look at Ouma who merrily waves to him. “Oh. Well, he should still knock it off.”

“I agree,” says Shirogane. “I think Hoshi-kun is probably right about the sword probably being really important—it could be the sword of life, or maybe even the sword of destruction.” She taps a finger to her chin. “Though if it was one of those, that’d mean Ouma-kun would have to be at least a half demon…”

“I’d buy that,” Hoshi mutters, half amused. “Also, it’s probably for the best Shinguji’s not here. He’d probably threaten to rip out your nervous system or something if saw this.”

Ouma pouts, but moves to put the sword back. “Geeze, everyone’s ruining all my fun today…” he places it in its former holder and immediately pulls a face at the sight of his hands, now sparklingly with gold. “Ew, now I’m all dirty.”

“That’s what you get,” Momota says. “Maybe now you’ll finally learn your fucking less—hey!”

He begins shouting anew, pulling away the loose part of his coat as Ouma attempts to wipe his hands on it. 

Kaede chooses to take that moment to ignore them, and glance around the near cavernous room. The ceiling vaults above her and her eyes wander up the staircases crisscrossing over themselves to reach every ascending level, each filled to the brim with what Kaede can only assume are precious artifacts from times forgotten. 

Or at least, times forgotten by most. 

She tugs at the brim of her hat. “This is Shinguji-kun’s lab, isn’t it?”

Kiibo nods. “I believe we can only assume so. The only other people who would have locked talent labs would be Amami-kun and Saihara-kun.”

Gonta crosses his arms. “Gonta doesn’t think this looks like a detective’s study… but Gonta also has never been in a detective’s study.”

“I have,” Hoshi muses. “And they don’t really look like this.”

“We never did discover what Amami-san’s talent was,” Tenko says. “However, Tenko still thinks it is safe to say that this room likely belongs… would have belonged to Shinguji-san.”

“Oh, I was just thinking about something actually,” Shirogane says, reentering the conversation. “Since we were able to get in here, even if Shinguji-kun… isn’t here anymore, does that mean we’d also still be able to enter Amami-kun’s lab?”

“And then perhaps we could find some clues to uncover his talent,” Kiibo says. 

Kaede doesn’t respond to them, instead moving like a ghost through the room of someone she killed before they’d even lay eyes on it. Her mind helpfully recalls when she entered Tojo’s lab with the other girl for the first time and how happy she had seemed—how Kaede had called her elegant and she had smiled with so much warmth and life.

She moves undisturbed, drifting past Yumeno and Angie seemingly praying together in one corner and Momota chasing Ouma around in circles around a display case to the latter’s delight in another. She moves towards a display case near the two boys, and her hands almost seem to automatically fall on a small blue, leather bound book. 

Kaede flicks it open as the others move at their own leisure to inspect whatever artifacts catch their interest, even as hers remain fixated on the small book. She turns the pages, diagrams and chants for summoning spirits detailed on each page, and her attention seems to almost instinctually linger on a ritual for speaking to the dead. 

Her mouth tightens into a line and she thinks of shot puts and arrows and a million other things she regrets. She thinks of dreams where Amami forgives her and how those are by far the worst of all.

A shadow falls over her reading, and she glances over her shoulder to see Momota looming behind her and Ouma standing on his toes to peek at the book.

“Can I help you?” she says, not bothering with hiding her annoyance.

“Nah, just wandering what you’re looking at,” Momota says before pulling a face. “Do you really buy into all that spirit crap?”

Kaede shakes her head. “Not really. I mean, I’ve never really thought about too much to begin with.”

“But you seem to be thinking about it now,” Ouma says. “You seem to be thinking about talking to the dead.”

She glares down at him. “I was just skimming through it.”

“But it’s a good question,” Ouma says. “So, Akamatsu-chan, what would you say if you could speak to someone who died?”

Her throat tightens and she slams the book shut. “Nothing. I have nothing to say to the dead, and I’m sure they have nothing to say to me.”

Momota gives her an odd look as she all but throws the book back on its shelf. “You wouldn’t—”

“No,” she says, already walking away from them. “I wouldn’t.”

-

Kaede remains tense for the rest of their exploration of Shinguji’s lab, and she’s the first one out of the room and down the hall when the others finally sate their own curiosity. Tenko jogs to keep pace with her but mercifully does not attempt to engage her in conversation. 

She reaches another door—one splattered with paint—and only waits until she hears the sound of approaching footsteps before pulling it open. Tenko seems on the edge of saying something but remains silent for a moment longer, following Kaede into the almost blindingly white room. 

They begin their examination and the others slowly pour through the door of their own accord, Tenko announcing to them, “Angie-san, Tenko thinks this is your lab.”

Angie flitters around the room in a frenzy, excitedly hoping to investigate one set of art supplies and then another. “Ooh, it is!” She steeples her hands. “Angie asked God if her lab would be next, and it was! Angie really needs to pray to God for this.”

“I’d hold up on the ‘thank yous,’ if I was you,” Hoshi says, gesturing up to the noticeably uncovered ceiling with his cigarette. “Looks like your room isn’t quite finished.”

From the back door, Kiibo announces, “It also appears that your lab contains a different kind of lock on each of its doors, Angie-san.”

“Oh, that’s okay!” Angie says. “Angie likes it. Some people really only are into symmetry, but Angie has always been all about asymmetry.”

“As long as God and Angie are happy with it, I don’t think there’s a problem,” Yumeno says, taking a seat on one of several large cylinders of wax. “Also this chair isn’t very comfortable.”

“That’s because it isn’t a chair, Himiko!” Angie says, leaning down to inspect the wax. “Wow! This looks like super nice quality wax, and, hmm.” She closes her eyes for a moment, hands still moving over the wax cylinders. “God says… that Angie should use these to make statues… the best most realistic statues that she can.”

“Oh, that sounds cool…” Yumeno says. “What would they be statues of?”

“People, of course!” Angie says. “Oh, and, and, and, God also says that Himiko should use them in her magic show!”

Yumeno places a finger to her bottom lip. “I guess I could do that… I’d need to think about what tricks to do first…”

“Do some really cool ones,” says Angie. “And God will make sure everything goes perfectly.”

Momota snorts. “Like the construction of this room?”

“Mhmm!” Angie agrees. “Exactly! Hey, Kaito, have you ever thought about talking to God? Angie really thinks it would help with—”

“I’ll pass,” he says, instead returning to inspecting the lock on the entrance. “So, like, does this room only fucking lock from the inside?”

At his words, three familiar bears suddenly appear from seemingly nowhere. 

“Uh, that, uh,” stutters the red one. “That seems like our cue for us to do… something.”

“Th-that’s right! We have to, uh, what was it?” asks the pink one.

“IT-WAS-THIS,” says Monodam, holding up a key in its metal paw. “THIS-IS-THE-KEY-FOR-THIS-ROOM.”

Angie strolls over to him, and the little robot gently places it in her hands. “Aw, thank you! God says that you are definitely the best robot here.”

From his spot at the door, Kiibo takes offense to her comment, calling out, “Hey!”

“I’m sure God meant other than you,” Yumeno assures him, punctuating her encouragement with a yawn.

In its same stilted voice, Monodam says, “THANK-YOU. I-THINK-WE-SEE-THINGS-THE-SAME. YOU-WANT-TO-MAKE-SURE-EVERYONE-GETS-ALONG. THAT-IS-WHAT-EVERYONE-SHOULD-ASPIRE-TO.”

Angie beams at its praise. “Ah, thank you! Angie will do her best!”

Monodam nods. “NOW-THERE-IS-ONLY-ONE-MORE-PUZZLE-AHEAD. PLEASE-LEAD-YOUR-FRIENDS-TO-FIND-ITS-ANSWER. BY-WORKING-TOGETHER, YOU-WILL-ALL-BECOME-BETTER-FRIENDS.”

“Oh, you mean the puzzle with the fake painting at the end of the hall with the three rooms?” Monotaro asks. “Like, where you have to smash the hammer through it or whatever?”

Monodam turns to him, robotic face darkening. 

Monotaro suddenly begins to sweat. “Uh, w-what? St-Stop looking at me with such a scary face—I didn’t do anything wrong, right?”

Monodam chooses to ominously say. “IN-ORDER-TO-GET-ALONG-WITH-ALL-YOUR-FRIENDS, IT-IS-IMPORTANT-TO-GIVE-THEM-HARSH-PUNISHMENTS-WHEN-THEY-DO-THINGS-WRONG.”

The pink one breaks out into a sweat as well. “I-Is that true?”

Monodam continues to level increasingly menacing threats at the other two, robotic voice melding into the background as Angie, pockets her new key before saying, “Alright, so Angie asked God, and he says we should go to the end of the hall where we found the three rooms for Himiko’s magic show.”

“I… don’t think God told you that,” Shirogane mumbles.

Angie ignores her. “Alright, so everyone follow Angie!”

She marches out of the room, the others trailing behind her awkwardly until they reach the odd painting. Angie stops in front of it, moving her head to inspect it from all angles before saying, “Ohhh, Angie gets it! This isn’t really a painting at all—just glass!” She points a finger at it. “Gonta, hammer!”

“Oh, uh, right,” Gonta says looking down to Hoshi who shuffles it out of his pocket and back into Gonta’s hands.

He moves in front of the glass wall. “Ahem, uh, everyone should stand back so no one gets hurt.”

“Yeah, yeah, get a move on,” Ouma says bouncing up and down.

Momota rolls his eyes. “Do you just not have a fucking off button?”

Angie smiles at them. “God is super happy to see you guys getting along. Your friendship is so cute!”

“Yup,” Ouma agrees. “Me and Momota-chan are the absolute best of friends.”

Momota looks at Angie in absolute shock, and his shout of disbelief is promptly drowned out by the sound of smashing glass.

The wall before them crashes down, shattering almost into complete nothingness with a single swing of the hammer. Gonta stands before it, dumbfounded at the strange trick before him. “Should…” he says eventually, “Should we go inside?”

“Mhmm!” Ouma says. “Me and Momota-chan will go first!”

Momota gags. “I’d rather eat some of this glass—hey, fucking let go!”

With little concern for the string of curses being leveled at him, Ouma grabs Momota’s hand and pulls him along and into the strange new room.

“Ouma-san!” Tenko shouts. “You should not make Momota-san run! He is still hurt!”

Kaede hears Momota’s voice echo back, “I am not!”

Ouma shouts, “Ooh, treasure chest!” 

Kaede blinks. Then, “Does that mean there’s a Flashback Light?” she enters after them and immediately spies Ouma peering inside a large chest. 

She walks past the large electronic looking box towering over the rest of the room and comes to stand at Ouma’s side. He’s already weighing the odd device in his hands, a near unreadable look on his face.

Kaede looks between him and the Flashback Light and says, “Is there something wrong with it?”

“Hmm?” Ouma says glancing up to her. “Nope!” he shoves it into her hands. “I was just thinking about how much I didn’t want to have to carry this around.”

Kaede rolls her eyes. 

Behind her, the others begin examining some of the various computers placed around the room. Shirogane says, “Oh, Kiibo-kun, what do you think about these?”

Gonta nods. “Gonta doesn’t know a lot about computers, but can Kiibo-kun…” he thinks for a moment. “Talk to one?” he tries.

“Maybe he could plug into one,” Hoshi suggests. “Try and see if he can download any information or something.”

Kiibo frowns. “I actually am not very knowledgeable about computers. Iruma-san would be better for such a task.”

“Huh?” says Ouma. “You don’t know anything about computers despite being one? Does that mean you’re even more useless than we thought? Ooh, ooh,” he bounces on the spot, “what if Iruma-chan comes up here and she decides she likes these computers more than you? Then what happens?”

“Th-That will not happen!” Kiibo says. He pauses for a moment, seemingly startled by his outburst. “I-I mean, I am not useless, and you are discriminating against robots by saying so.”

“Anyway, speaking of Iruma-san,” Kaede says. “Someone should go get her so we can use the Flashback Light.”

“Right,” says Momota. “And I’ll go get Harukawa so we can all do it together.”

Kaede frowns at his words. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He sighs. “Kaede, we already fucking had this talk. Whether you like her or not, she’s in this mess, too. And it would be really fucking shitty of us not to share information with her, especially about our goddamn memories.” 

“But we don’t owe her anything,” says Kaede. “And whether or not it’s a fair thing to do, keeping her away from everyone is for the safety of everyone.”

Momota opens his mouth, but Angie quickly cuts him off. “So Angie can see where this is going,” she says. “And God says that Kaede and Kaito shouldn’t fight.”

Kaede sighs. “We’re not fighting, Angie-san. We are just respectfully disagreeing with each other like two mature people.”

“But Momota-chan’s not mature?” Ouma interjects.

“You shut up,” Momota says. “And also,” he turns to the group as a whole, “C’mon guys, fucking back me up here. Even if you don’t trust Harukawa, she still deserves to get her memories back.”

“Ah, I suppose that is true…” Shirogane says nervously.

Gonta nods. “Gonta thinks it would be pretty cruel of us to hide something like that from her… even if she does make Gonta nervous.”

Kaede stares at them openmouthed. “You—you guys,” she shakes her head. “Like I said, this isn’t about being fair—this is about being safe.”

“Harukawa-san is very dangerous,” says Tenko. “And… Tenko really isn’t sure about being around her after… several incidents.”

“Harukawa-chan’s a murderer!” Ouma cheers.

Kaede winces at his support, but says, “And that’s exactly my point. We shouldn’t handcuff ourselves with what’s fair when she so obviously has such an unfair advantage over us. _Especially_ with the situation we’re in.”

“But she can’t help that,” Momota says. “We don’t even fucking know what she wants—we’re just making stuff up about her!”

“Hmm,” says Angie. “So, Angie asked God, and he says that’s enough arguing. He also thinks,” she clasps her hands, “that we should put it to a vote!”

“A vote?” Kaede parrots.

“Yup!” says Angie. “Okay, everyone who thinks we should let Maki see the Flashback Light, raise your hand!”

Angie raises her own, signaling the others to start doing so. Momota does so immediately, followed by a more hesitant Shirogane and Gonta. After a moment, Kiibo does as well, eventually followed by Hoshi who sighs as he does it.

Angie elbows Yumeno and says, “Himiko, God really thinks that we need to share information so everyone can live here peacefully, you know, so we need to include Maki, too!”

Yumeno looks at her, looks to somewhere to the side of Tenko and then to the ground as she, too, raises her hand.

Kaede stares absolutely dumbfounded at the seven people before her. “A-All of you really… but, she’s—!”

“Okay, now everyone who thinks agrees with Kaede,” says Angie.

Kaede feels pure frustration and embarrassment as she raises her hand, followed by Tenko, who is clearly sweating bullets, and Ouma, still smiling widely.

Though it only makes her feel more embarrassed, Kaede quickly says, “Iruma-san would also agree with me if she was here.”

“But then it would still be seven to four…” says Shirogane.

“Which means we have our answer!” says Angie. “Okay, Kaito! You go get Maki, and Kiibo can go get Miu and we can all meet in the cafeteria together.” 

Kaede turns her face away from Momota when he moves to try to say something to her, the words dying in his throat. He mumbles, “forget it,” and walks out of the room. 

Very few of the others look at Kaede as they leave, and she tugs her hat down, bitterly reminding herself how earlier this morning she had been so confident that everyone supported her and Maki was alone. 

Tenko stays by her side, quietly saying, “Tenko is… pretty nervous about how everyone is treating Harukawa-san,” once most of the others leave. “Tenko fought with her… and Tenko could sense her anger, and,” she looks noticeably uncomfortable. “And Kaede-san, you should be really careful because Tenko doesn’t know if she could win in a fight against her.”

Kaede sighs. “I will…” then she lets out a bitter laugh. “And here I thought telling everyone about Harukawa-san’s real nature would make them more cautious. Well,” she tries to smile. “At least we have each other.”

“And me!” says Ouma popping up from behind them. “I don’t like people like Harukawa-chan, either!”

Tenko’s expression of sympathy warps into one of disgust. “What do you want? If you attempt to fight Kaede-san, Tenko will flip you a second time.”

“Ah, but the ground in here is much harder,” he whines. “And all I was trying to do was say how much I support Akamatsu-chan, even if she is a liar.”

Kaede blinks at him. “What have I lied about?”

“Lying!” he says and prances out of the room, leaving the two girls behind.

Tenko stares after him. “Ouma-san,” she says. “Is strange?”

“That’s a word for it,” Kaede says.

“No, it’s…” Tenko furrows her eyebrows. “Tenko thinks… that Ouma-san was telling the truth when he said he didn’t like Harukawa-san, or, people like her…”

Kaede frowns. “And what does that mean?”

She bites her lip. “Tenko isn’t sure. We should…” she shakes her head. “Ah, Tenko is sorry for distracting you. We should not keep the others waiting, Kaede-san.”

Kaede stares at her hard, but says, “Alright, if you’re sure.”

She nods. “Tenko is.”

-

The wait in the cafeteria is not a long one, though it is uncomfortable as Tenko and Kaede keep a slight distance from the others. When Kiibo emerges into the room with Iruma in toe, she immediately comments on the situation. To Kaede’s mild relief, when Kiibo explains, Iruma instantly squawks that she doesn’t want Maki anywhere near her.

Some more time ticks on, before Momota finally enters the room, Maki behind him. With a bright grin he says, “Took some convincing, but I finally got her.” 

“I’m not convinced of anything,” Maki says. “I’m only here because this idiot said he wouldn’t leave until I agreed.”

“Which means you agreed with me,” Momota says, seemingly unperturbed by her insult.

“And that means everyone’s here,” says Angie. “Okay, Kaede! Do the thing!”

Kaede frowns at her, but takes a deep breath and flicks on the memory light.

Her mind becomes engulfed in pure white, hot and seething and searing and screaming directly into her brain. Everything falls away and keeps falling and falling and then…

And then Kaede sees a vision of her own funeral.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes the very lengthy exploration portion of this chapter, haha. Things should start coming together/being more interesting in the next few chapters if all goes well.


	12. Daily Life VI

There are so many people Kaede has never seen before, and all of them talk about how it was such a tragedy. Candles flicker on either side of her portrait and the next and the next, and people talk about how they were all so talented and it was such a shame.

Then she finds herself back in the cafeteria, suddenly out of breath as her head swims with images of her own funeral. She snaps her head up to see everyone around her basking in various states of horror. Kaede bites her lip. 

Iruma screeches. “What that fuck was that!?”

Shirogane’s hugging herself, and mumbles, “D-Does this mean we’re all dead? Are we all dead?”

Hoshi’s standing stalk still, staring at some seemingly far away place. “I take it everyone saw the same thing then.”

“A funeral…” Maki says under her breath. “A funeral for everyone here…”

Iruma’s pacing the room, ranting and raving mostly to herself. “Th-This is absolute fucking _bullshit_ is what it is! Be-Because I—I am not fucking dead! I’m not fucking—” she rakes her hands through her hair, “I’m not dead—I’m not dead, I’m not dead!”

Kiibo reaches out to her, placing a calming hand on her shoulder. “Iruma-san, please try to calm down. Though I understand that this is upsetting, clearly something is not right since we are all very much alive.”

She takes a deep breath. “Y-Yeah. I… I fucking knew… that.”

“Oh, but what if we are?” Angie asks. “What if this is the afterlife?”

Hoshi glares at her. “Are you trying to start her going again?”

Kaede steps in. “Everyone—this is not the time to fight.” She takes a breath. “Like Kiibo-kun said, there is definitely something wrong here, so let’s all just calm down and think about it without panicking.”

“Yeah,” says Momota. “I think we can rule us all being the dead right the fuck out. So it was probably,” he waves hand as if to summon inspiration, “I dunno a play or something. Like at a cultural festival.”

“‘A cultural festival?’” Gonta echoes. “But… Gonta thinks he went to a different school than everyone else…”

Momota shrugs. “Well, we’re all obviously missing a bunch of memories and shit anyway. We probably all did a fucking play together or something.”

“I find that hard to believe,” says Maki in a surprisingly soft voice.

He throws his hands in the air. “Look—I’m just fucking throwing out theories here. All I know is that shit is not definitely real, so it had to be a play or some shit, right?”

An unease silence falls over the room before Maki turns away from the group. “I find that hard to believe as well. Why would any of us have done anything together before this?”

“I guess,” tries Shirogane. “That this means that maybe we knew each other before?”

“Maybe,” Maki says to the cafeteria doors as she approaches them. “But I still find this whole thing unbelievable.”

Iruma snorts, crossing her arms. “Oh yeah? And why the fuck is that, training bra?”

Maki doesn’t react to the insult, instead merely pushing the doors open, and saying, “Because I doubt anyone would hold a funeral for me if I died,” and walking out of the cafeteria.

In the quiet that follows her exit, Momota shakes his head, cursing under his breath. “Shit—I need to fucking talk to her or something…”

“Alright, so,” says Angie. “Does that mean we’re done?”

Yumeno juts out her lower lip. “It seems like we didn’t learn anything… what a waste of time.”

Kaede sighs in agreement and glances over the various unsettled faces of her classmates. Amidst the others, Ouma stands completely blank faced and quiet. A more verbal murmur of agreement passes over the others in response to Yumeno’s assessment, and Ouma finally says, “So, is that what you all think?”

“Tenko doesn’t understand,” she says. “What else are we supposed to think?”

His eyes flicker from her face to the others, seemingly evaluating something Kaede can only guess at. “I see. Well, that is a disappointment.”

“That the Flashback Light was a fucking bust?” Momota asks. “Yeah, I guess I can fucking agree to that.”

“No,” he says before breaking out in his familiar grin again. “Not that, but that’s about what I expect from someone as smart as you, Momota-chan.”

Momota frowns. “Is that an insult or a compliment?”

He presses a finger to his lip. “It’s a mystery.” He skips over to the exit, pressing his back against it. “It sure is a good thing you’re pretty, Momota-chan.”

Momota rolls his eyes as Ouma disappears through the doors. Very slowly Kiibo says, “I think that means it was an insult. My apologies, Momota-kun.”

“Listen,” says Momota with a sigh. “I’ve stopped giving a fuck about what Ouma thinks for a long time now.”

Tenko almost involuntarily makes a slightly distressed noise. Kaede turns to her. “Tenko-san? Is somethin—”

“Nothing!” she says too quickly. “Tenko was just… was just…” she looks around the room for inspiration. “Tenko was just thinking if we should invite Ouma-san to Kiibo-san’s surprise party or not, that’s all.”

Angie jumps up, clapping her hands. “Oh right, oh right! Angie wanted to ask if she could do the decorations for that.”

“We’re still really fucking doing this…” Momota mutters under his breath.

“You sure as fuck can,” says Iruma. She slaps her hands together. “And that is one part of this hot mess I don’t have to deal with.”

Angie seems to ignore her comment. “Okay, so God wants to know what the theme is—ooh and where we’re holding it, _and_ if it’s supposed to be a surprise.”

Iruma thinks for a moment. “Well, it’s not a fucking surprise, since Bakamatsu and me have kinda shot that horse in the face… but…” she looks to Kaede for direction. “It’s gonna be a fucking… dead people… party…”

Shirogane holds her hands to her chest. “A corpse party? Oh, and Akamatsu-san did find that strange shadowy book earlier in Shinguji-kun’s lab… but the school isn’t haunted, is it—”

“No, it’s fucking not!” Momota quickly interjects. “D-Don’t say stupid shit like that!”

Kaede says, “I think Iruma-san means that we talked it over and decided to make it a memorial for everyone…” she sighs. “For everyone who’s not here anymore.”

Kiibo nods solemnly. “That is very thoughtful of both of you, Akamatsu-san and Iruma-san.”

“You fucking bet your shiny metal ass it is,” Iruma says.

“But then why is it a party for Kiibo?” Yumeno asks. “He’s still alive… unless he’s actually—”

“There are no such things as ghosts!” Momota shouts.

“Momota-san,” Tenko reprimands. “Even if you are scared, do not yell at Yumeno-san.”

“I’m not fucking scared of anything!” he shouts back.

Iruma snorts. “Yeah, and I’m the fucking pope. But anyway,” she turns to Kiibo. “We figured we’d do it since Kiibo liked Tojo, even if she was a limp-titted—”

“Angie thinks that sounds like a great idea!” she says. “Oh, and God is giving Angie so much inspiration right now for what to make, especially since her lab just opened up. Oh, Kaede, where should Angie bring her decorations when she finishes them?”

Kaede furrows her brow. “Um, I think,” she looks at Iruma who chooses to mouth ‘I don’t fucking know’ back. “We should hold it… at… the casino.”

“The casino?” Hoshi echoes. “Can’t say I’ve been there yet.”

“Oh, Gonta has,” he volunteers. “It’s very nice and there are lots of games.”

“So that way,” Angie says. “After everyone’s done being sad, God says we can all bond over games.” She clasps her hands together. “And then God says that we’ll all have so much fun, no one will even think about leaving the school.”

“That’s not why we’re doing it,” Kaede says, frowning.

Angie tilts her head to one side. “Well, maybe it’s not the reason, but God says it will still happen! And,” she tilts her head to the other side, “God also wants to know if Miu finished building the lock for Maki’s lab.”

“Of course,” Iruma says. “Did you virgins really think a measly little thing like a lock would take the great Iruma Miu anytime? I fucking made this thing finish faster than—”

“Ah, Miu, God says you did a great job,” says Angie. “And he says that Angie and everyone else are lucky to have someone like you around.”

Iruma’s face flushes pink, and she begins to fiddle with a piece of her hair. “Uh, w-w-well, yeah. That’s what I’ve been saying since day one…”

“Mhmm,” Angie continues. “And God really appreciates it and everything else you do for us.”

“He does?” Iruma asks. “I-I-I mean, of course he f-fucking does, ‘cause I’m—”

“The great Iruma Miu?” Angie asks. “Mhmm, yup, God totally knows and understands completely. And as long as God’s with you he’ll always understand, and you won’t ever have to worry about what anyone thinks! God will always believe in you if you always believe in him.”

Suddenly Iruma begins to look very uncomfortable. “Wh-What the fuck is this shit!? Listen here, you—you little bible thumping, slu—”

And then Angie moves over to embrace her in a hug, and any words Iruma was ready to level at her die instantly. “God will always be here for you, Miu,” Angie says.

Iruma seems to freeze all of a sudden, then very slowly she says, “Y-Yeah… yeah, o-okay… I g-guess there’s God or some shit…”

With a bright smile, Angie releases her. “Ah, God is so happy to hear that, Miu!”

Iruma shifts from foot to foot, nervously looking at the ground. “G-Good. Fuck—fucking awesome, I mean, God and shit, that is…”

Tenko steps closer to Kaede, whispering, “Didn’t Angie-san do something like this with Kiibo-san?”

Kaede nods but remains silent, still surveying the situation.

“Um,” Iruma says, reaching into one of her pockets to pull out something shiny and metal. “S-So, do you want—does, does God want the fucking lock now or…”

“Ah, thank you so much, Miu!” Angie says before turning to the rest of the group. “Okay, so now everyone just needs to give their videos to Angie, and Miu can put the lock on the door.”

Kiibo says, “I am afraid I do not have mine on me, but I can go retrieve it. Does anyone else also need to return to the dorms to get theirs? I believe it would make sense to do so as a group.”

Still shaking, Iruma says, “Me, too! I mean,” she shakes her head, “I-I can go with you—need to go with you…”

“And with Miu and Kiibo going,” says Angie, “God doesn’t think there will be any problems there!”

Momota scratches the back of his head. “I don’t really get that, but didn’t we fucking go over who had their videos on ‘em at the trial?”

Kaede nods. “We did. The only people who said they didn’t have theirs were Angie-san, Kiibo-kun,” she pauses for a moment to think, “Yumeno-san, and Gonta-kun. Also we can probably assume Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun’s are still in their rooms.”

Gonta blinks. “What? Gonta has his with him.”

Angie looks up at him. “But that’s not what you said earlier.” Her smile darkens. “Gonta, did you lie at the trial?”

“N-No,” he says, waving his hands. “G-Gonta’s just got a little confused.” 

He looks over to Kaede nervously, and she comes to his rescue, “I don’t think it’s a problem, Angie-san. I think he just assumed we were talking about something else.”

“Oh?” Angie asks. “What something would that be? Even God doesn’t know…”

“Well, Gonta doesn’t know, but—”

“Did Gonta lie?” Angie persists. 

“Oi,” says Hoshi, coming to stand in front of the other boy. “Leave him alone. He says he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. And also,” he glares up at her. “I don’t think anyone here should have to hand over anything to you.”

Angie sighs. “Ryoma, God says it’s for the good of everyone.”

Kiibo steps in. “Yes, and I believe Angie-san is simply trying to protect everyone.”

“Yeah!” Iruma agrees. “And I already built the fucking lock!”

Yumeno nods. “Angie’s probably right… she’s usually right about these things.”

She clasps her hands together. “Ah, thank you everyone! See, Ryoma, everyone agrees with Angie—we could even do another vote like earlier.”

Hoshi’s mouth pulls into a tight, thin line before he finally speaks to address the room as a whole, “Whichever one of you has my video, come talk to me after you’re done with this nonsense.” He reaches into one of his pockets to pull out a video player, then turns, pressing it into Gonta’s large hands. “Do whatever you want with this… it doesn’t matter to me.”

Gonta calls out, “Hoshi-kun…” as the small boy leaves the cafeteria, looking even smaller than normal.

“Okay then,” Angie says. “Looks like that’s everything! Let’s get everyone together to meet at Maki’s lab in ten minutes! Don’t keep God waiting!”

With that, she skips out of the room, Kiibo and Iruma following after her, then Yumeno a moment later. 

The doors swing shut and a beat of silence follows before Momota says, “Okay, to talk about the fucking elephant in the room, I really don’t like whatever shit Angie’s trying to pull.”

“It… is beginning to make me nervous,” Kaede admits. “I just sort of assumed everyone would do whatever they wanted anyway, no matter what she said.”

Shirogane wrings her hands. “But, Angie-san is just trying to keep us all safe, right? So it’s okay?”

“Tenko…” she says. “Tenko isn’t sure…”

“Gonta wishes everyone would stop fighting,” he says, eyes locked on the video player in his hands. “After everything that’s happened, all of Gonta’s friends just keep fighting.”

“Gonta-kun…” Kaede says.

Momota slaps him on the back. “Hey, now is no fucking time to get down on yourself, okay? All we gotta do is just keep working together and believing in each other, and if a fight or some shit breaks out, then we’ll stop it. No point in worrying about any of that crap now.”

“That’s right,” says Tenko, finding her resolve again. “Tenko does not know what is coming, but she will use her Neo-Aikido to protect everyone.”

“Protect,” Gonta echoes. “That’s right—Gonta made a promise to protect all of his friends.” He grips the video player tightly in his hands before staring down hard at the four remaining students. “So first, Gonta wants to know if any of you have Hoshi-kun’s video.”

Tenko and Kaede both immediately stiffen. Shirogane gives them a second to exchange nervous looks as she says, “Well, I have mine, and Momota-kun said he got Shinguji-kun’s at the trial…”

Momota buys them a second more. “W-Why do you wanna know, big guy?”

Gonta straightens. “Gonta has been thinking a lot about what Angie-san said, and thinks that if he was to watch Hoshi-kun’s video with him before it got locked away, everything would be fine. That way Gonta could protect Hoshi-kun and Angie-san.”

“I think you’re using the term ‘protect’ a bit loosely,” Shirogane says.

“Well, um, Gonta-kun,” Kaede says finally. “The thing about Hoshi-kun’s video…” she gives one more uneasy look to Tenko before saying, “is that… there’s nothing on it.”

Gonta blinks. “What?”

Tenko nods, stepping up to stand next to Kaede in solidarity. “Tenko was the first person to receive it, and she can confirm that it is blank.”

“But,” says Shirogane. “What does that mean? Is there—”

“It means,” Kaede says. “That Monokuma is terrible, and he made a video where it’s said there is no one on the outside for Hoshi-kun. Honestly,” she sighs, “the reason why I kept pushing back the screening until we just ended up not doing it altogether was because I wanted to keep Hoshi-kun from seeing it.”

Suddenly Gonta stands up even straighter. “If that is the case, then Gonta,” even with the video player in hand, he pumps both his fists, “Gonta will protect Hoshi-kun!”

“From… what?” Shirogane asks.

“Gonta will stay with Hoshi-kun and distract him if he is ever lonely, and show him that he has friends!” Gonta announces.

Momota grins. “That’s the spirit. I’m sure with a guy like you around, he’ll have to stop fucking moping around.”

Gonta moves to Kaede, handing the video to her as well as pulling another one from his jacket pocket. “Please give these to Angie-san, Akamatsu-san. Gonta will stay with Hoshi-kun while the videos are being locked away.”

Kaede takes them and offers him a smile. “That’s very kind of you, Gonta-kun. Maybe you two could get around to bug catching or something?”

Gonta’s eyes light up. “Gonta will go suggest that to Hoshi-kun right now! Thank you, Akamatsu-san!”

He rushes from the room, his pure intentioned determination pushing him forward with frightening speed. With his exit done, Kaede looks down at the videos piled in her hands and feels the ones hanging heavy on her back. “I… suppose we should head up to Harukawa-san’s lab.”

Shirogane nods. “Do you think it’s been more than ten minutes? I have a feeling Angie-san isn’t going to be very happy with us…”

Momota shrugs. “Well, Angie can deal with it.” He walks to the door, casually stretching his arms over his head. “Actually, think I’m gonna fucking skip this one—Kaede has my video anyway.”

Tenko frowns at him. “What are you planning to do instead, Momota-san?”

He snorts. “Something you won’t yell at me for. I’m fucking beat, so,” he says, “I was planning on taking a nap until training.”

Tenko places her hands on her hips. “Momota-san, roll up the leg of your pants.”

Shirogane gasps, hands flying to her mouth. “Chabashira-san, what are you—”

“Tenko wants to inspect Momota-san’s injury,” she says. “The only person to see it in detail as Tojo-san, and she is no longer here to take care of you.”

“I don’t need to be fucking taken care of,” he says rolling his eyes.

“Then show Tenko your injury,” she persists. “If you are fine, Tenko promises she will not mention it again.”

Momota crosses his arms and, after a far too tense pause, he eventually complies and sits down on the ground to begin rolling up his pant leg. 

Tenko approaches and kneels in front of him, leaving Kaede and Shirogane to hover behind her. Kaede sees a large, deep red bruise stretching from almost the entire section of his leg previously hidden and continuing up over his knee where his pant leg obscures any further observation. 

After a moment’s hesitation, Tenko reaches out and gently places one of her hands on it, and Momota flinches back at the slightest touch of her fingertips. He seems startled by his own reaction, and attempts to laugh, “Uh, wow, Chabashira, didn’t expect you to fucking manhandle me.”

She glares at him but does not respond, instead choosing to very deliberately touch his injury again, and Kaede spies him stealing himself as she does so to prevent flinching again. Beside her, Kaede hears Shirogane mumble, “I didn’t think it would be that bad…” Then louder she says, “It was just the incident at the bug appreciation party, right? Did anything else happen?”

He waves his hand, frustration obvious on his face. “I don’t know—Ouma was a piece of shit and tripped me in Chabashira’s lab earlier.”

“He didn’t,” says Tenko, her voice emotionless for once. “He pulled you to the ground once, and you slipped after chasing him later.” She finishes her inspection, and draws herself back up to her feet. “Neither of those incidents should have caused any major complications.”

Momota huffs, but pushes his pant leg back down and much more slowly rises to his feet as well. “He’s still a piece of shit,” he curses under his breath. Then louder, to the three girls watching his every movement, he says, “So, now you know I’m fine and I can fucking leave, right? I really need to…” he waves a hand vaguely, “take a nap or something.”

Tenko’s mouth forms a tight line but remains silent, leaving Kaede to say, “We’ll meet up with you later.”

He nods. “Yeah, you guys should head to Harukawa’s lab anyway. Angie’ll probably blow a fucking gasket if you’re late.”

Tenko continues to stare hard at him, and Kaede says. “Sure. See you later.”

He nods again and heads out the door. Tenko seems poised on her feet, and as soon as the sounds of his slippers fade completely she spins on her heel to face the other two girls. “There’s something wrong with Momota-san,” she says immediately. “Tenko has seen and personally experienced many combat related bruising injuries, and Momota-san’s is showing all the signs of not healing correctly.”

Shirogane’s eyes widen. “Wh-What does that mean? I-I mean,” she shakes her head. “Why is that happening to him?”

Tenko frowns, crossing her arms. “Tenko is not sure. Has Momota-san ever mentioned having any other physical conditions?”

“No,” Kaede says. “In fact, the only time I’ve ever heard him talking about his health is when he mentions how strong he is.”

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko is not sure what to do. No one here has medical training.”

“And there isn’t an infirmary, is there?” says Shirogane.

“Maybe one will open up later,” Kaede says. “But that’s a gamble… and,” she tugs at her hat, “someone else would need to die for more of the school to open.”

Shirogane sighs, hugging one of her arms, “Why is this happening? Did we do something wrong? Is that why we’re trapped here?”

“No, the only reason why we’re here is because of Monokuma and the mastermind,” Kaede says. “And right now unfortunately all we can do about that is tear our hair out.”

“Then,” says Shirogane. “Should we just—should we just keep moving? Oh,” she frowns, looking down at the ground. “That reminds me—if Angie-san wasn’t going to be angry at us for being late before, she definitely is now…”

Tenko stiffens. “That is true.”

Kaede sighs. “Alright, I suppose there’s also no fighting Angie-san on this either.”

“She sure is becoming something, isn’t she?” Shirogane says. 

“Let’s just hope it stops where it is right now,” says Kaede. “Because… I’m not really sure what else we can do.”

-

Angie meets them with her strange dark smile, but her eyes widen and her expression shifts to something resembling appreciation as Shirogane hands over her one video and Kaede hands over her five.

Kaede stands back as she watches Angie check each video, seemingly to examine it for its intended recipient before casually tossing them inside Maki’s lab. Behind her, Iruma and Kiibo stand almost like guards, with Yumeno only a few feet behind. Evantually Angie throws in the last of Kaede’s collections and brushes her hands together. “Okay, Miu! God says it’s ready now.”

“Were you able to get everyone’s?” Kaede asks as Iruma kneels next to the door, applying her carefully crafted lock.

Angie presses a finger to her chin. “Everyone except for Kokichi’s since Angie couldn’t get him to come out of his room. Buuut, Angie checked each video and the only missing is his.”

“So Ouma-kun is just hiding his own?” Kaede asks, then to herself, she mumbles, “Why does it seem like it’s always him?”

Angie nods. “Yup. Buuut he also made a deal with Angie and opened the door to Maki’s room so we could get hers.”

Tenko frowns. “Angie-san, didn’t you just say Ouma-san refused to come out of his room?”

“Oh, Tenko, no, no, no,” Angie says. “Kokichi picked the lock to Maki’s door, _then_ he hid in his room.”

Kaede stares at her openmouthed for a moment before saying, “You… ordered him to break into someone else’s room?”

“Hmm?” she says. “Angie didn’t order—she just told him God wanted him to.”

“Is Ouma-kun part of your,” Kaede looks over the group before her, fishing for any word that isn’t ‘cult.’ “Religious circle now?”

Angie shakes her head. “Nope! Oh, but that reminds Angie.” She steeples her hands together over her head, and closes her eyes for a moment before saying, “In order to make sure everything stays peaceful, Angie has decided to put together a student council.”

“Student council?” Shirogane parrots from behind Kaede.

“Mhmm!” says Angie. “God told Angie to announce it to everyone tomorrow, so we can begin applying rules to keep everyone safe inside the school.”

“Angie-san,” says Tenko. “If you do not mind Tenko asking, what rules are you going to try to enforce?”

“Oh, just little things,” she says. “Like, no going out at night, no using the Flashback Lights, no going down to the tunnels. Stuff like that!”

Shirogane gasps. “B-But if we don’t use the Flashback Lights, we won’t be able to figure anything out about our memories!”

From beside Angie, Kiibo says, “Angie-san explained it that the Flashback Lights will only cause strife among us, as the last few most certainly have.”

Without looking up from her work, Iruma says, “Yeah—and strife’s bad and shit. Makes people wanna leave the school, which makes people wanna murder and all that crap.”

“And murder is bad…” says Yumeno dully. “Which means the Flashback Lights are bad…”

Angie nods. “Mhmm! And Kiibo, Miu, and Himiko are all great student council members! Also,” she looks up at Kaede. “Do you want to join the student council, Kaede? God is always ready to accept new members.”

“Uh, well,” Kaede says.

Next to her, Tenko takes a step forward, and says, “Tenko will join.” Kaede looks up at her bewildered until she notices the other girl’s gaze fixed at a certain someone standing behind Angie. “Tenko does not know a lot about Angie’s God, but she will do her best to protect everyone in the student council.”

Shirogane takes a step back. “W-Wait, how many people is that now?”

Angie smiles. “Ah, God is super happy to hear that, Tenko! Tsumugi, Kaede, what about you?”

Shirogane shakes her head. “I’m not—I don’t really know what’s going on…”

“Ah, it’s okay if you don’t know right now, Tsumugi,” says Angie. “But just let Angie know if you change your mind, and then Angie can let God know.”

Shirogane nods, looking around uncomfortably as she says, “Actually, I-I think I just remembered something I need to do in my room.” She looks to Kaede nervously, and says, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” before shuffling away a touch too quickly.

With her gone, Angie’s eyes fall on Kaede. “So, Kaede, what about you?”

Kaede glances at the others, eyes lingering over each of them to search for an appropriate answer before finally settling on Tenko, who stares back at her with a deeply pleading look. To Tenko, Kaede says, “Okay. I’ll join.”

Angie claps her hand in joy and begins to talk about her God again, but Kaede barely hears her over the sound of Tenko’s sigh of relief that she isn’t going into enemy territory alone.

-

The days passes uneasily as Angie easily commandeers the role of leadership in planning the memorial, and Kaede finds herself stuck in the casino until evening, preparing, and cleaning, and half-listening to Iruma curse about how she should have thought of a better cover story. Mostly she stays in her head. Though the idea of Angie’s student council unsettles her deeply, Kaede finds she can only do so much to ignore the feelings that well through her when she glances at its chosen members.

Iruma swears almost absently about Angie’s choice to locker herself in her lab while they do the grunt work, and Kiibo calmly listens to her in something resembling a conversation. Kaede watches them and bites her lip. There is almost no question about trusting Iruma, and Iruma trusts Kiibo, and Kiibo lost someone who betrayed him. Kaede finds it almost impossible not to think of all the people she betrayed and moves a little farther away from them.

The fact that Tenko could have easily killed her ten times over does very little to ease Kaede’s paranoid mind, but she stays close to her side as the other girl stays close to Yumeno. And Yumeno seems almost quietly desperate to be helpful even as Tenko hovers over her from a measured distance.

And with only the four of them around, Kaede feels the safest she has in a long time. As evening dawns, Kaede whispers as much to Tenko. “I still don’t know about what Angie-san’s planning,” she says. “But everyone she’s recruited seems harmless.”

Tenko nods. “That seems true, but,” she frowns. “Tenko is still… unsure about all of this.”

“That’s reasonable,” Kaede says. “But, if Angie-san really does manage to stop a murder—even if it’s through sheer force—does that mean she’s right? You know the,” she waves a hand, “the ends justify the means or something.”

Tenko’s eyes stay focused on Yumeno walking a few steps ahead of them behind Kiibo and Iruma. “Tenko still doesn’t know.”

They continue their walk in relative silence, the first three members of the student council heading straight to the dorms. Kaede pauses on the path, Tenko stopping beside her, as she spies Gonta and Hoshi standing under the arbor, both of them crouched conspiratorially over the table. Kaede nods her head towards them, and Tenko follows her as she approaches.

“What are you guys doing?” she asks. “Did you manage to catch one of your mystery bugs?”

They both immediately jolt at her words and spin to face her. Gonta waves both of his massive hands, while Hoshi stuffs his tiny ones into his pockets. Gonta says in a near panicked voice, “N-Nothing! Gonta didn’t find anything!”

Kaede quirks an eyebrow at them while Tenko seems almost unable to resist her sneer. “Tenko supposes awful boys always tell lies, huh?”

Hoshi appears calmer. “He’s not lying. We didn’t find any bugs.”

The comment seems to relax Gonta, and he says, “That’s right. Hoshi-kun and Gonta did not find any bugs.”

Kaede doesn’t bother to hide her suspicion. “Okay… then what were you two looking at?”

Hoshi and Gonta exchange a look before Hoshi says, “Just…” he sighs, “the stars.”

“Tenko finds that hard to believe,” she says.

“Believe it or not,” Hoshi replies. “But Gokuhara managed to pick up on something our resident astronaut didn’t.”

Kaede looks to Gonta. “You did?”

Gonta nods hurriedly. “That’s right. While Gonta and Hoshi-kun were… outside, it started to get dark, and Gonta noticed that the stars seemed strange.”

“Strange how?” Kaede prompts.

He crosses his arms, deep in thought. “Strange… strange like Gonta has never seen these stars before. The constellations and patterns are not the ones Gonta knows.”

“Weird, huh?” says Hoshi. “My thoughts are that it means we’re some place really far away, then.”

“That… could explain something that has been bothering Tenko,” she says. “Tenko,” she fidgets, “Tenko doesn’t remember how she got here, but… isn’t it strange that the police haven’t come yet? We’ve been trapped here for days, and there have been no signs of rescue.”

“Or of anything from the outside world,” Kaede says. She stares up at the sky, and says after a moment, “We can see the sky, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard a plane or anything like that.”

“Or seen any birds,” Gonta adds. “Or… Gonta doesn’t think he’s actually seen anything outside of the cage but sky.”

Hoshi takes one hand out of his pocket to fiddle with his cigarette. “Rescue… probably hasn’t come because of the hunt, or maybe,” he frowns, “maybe whatever that funeral was. Doesn’t explain the lack of planes or birds, however…”

Silence falls over them for a moment before Kaede finally says, “I suppose that means any chance of escape is on us.”

“Question is still how,” says Hoshi. “There’s always the tunnels, but…” he sighs, “that didn’t exactly work out for us.”

Kaede’s stomach churns at the memory of her first failure. She says, “I,” and clenches her fists, “I still don’t think we should give up on the tunnels. Maybe they’re nearly impossible, but if just _one_ of us was to get out, they could go find help.”

Tenko looks to her with worry. “But, Kaede-san, didn’t Angie-san say she going down to the tunnels was one of the things she was going to stop?”

“Angie-san is going to do… what?” Gonta asks.

Kaede sighs. “I think she’s planning on announcing it to everyone tomorrow, but Angie-san’s trying to organize people to enforce rules to stop us from wanting to leave.”

“She is calling it the student council,” says Tenko. “And Angie-san seems to have made herself the leader.”

“So,” says Hoshi. “This officially means she’s going on a power trip, right? With imaginary power?”

“Tenko wouldn’t say that,” she says. “Angie-san… definitely believes in what she says. Everything she says about her God—even if it’s inconsistent—Angie-san believes it.”

“But,” says Gonta. “Angie-san is just trying to keep everyone safe, isn’t she?”

“That seems to be the case so far,” says Kaede. 

Hoshi just shakes his head. “Nothing good can come from this. The way she talked to Kiibo, and then Iruma—something’s just not right about it.”

“Tenko knows,” she says. “And Tenko is keeping watch over everyone in Angie-san’s student council, even Kiibo-san.”

“Hopefully that’s the only thing you’ll need to do,” says Hoshi. 

Kaede nods. “Hopefully. Just… hoping is the only thing we’ve been able to for a while now, huh? You know,” she lets out a humorless laugh, “being able to do nothing but just hope is kind of awful.”

“Kaede-san,” says Tenko gently.

Kaede waves her concern away. “It’s fine. I’m just,” she shakes her head. “It’s fine. Also, it’s getting late.”

Hoshi glances up at the increasingly dark sky. “Guess it is. You two still doing your training thing with Momota?”

“Momota-san is too hurt,” says Tenko promptly. “But Tenko will continue to teach Kaede-san Neo-Aikido if she wants.”

Kaede laughs. “Sure—it might be nice to blow off some steam after today.” She smiles at her, then down at Hoshi, then catches Gonta’s faraway expression. “Gonta-kun? Are you alright?”

Hoshi becomes alert all of a sudden. “Gokuhara, is something wrong? You’ve been quiet.”

Gonta seems startled, and shakes himself at their voices. “Oh, no—Gonta was just thinking about something. Gonta—” he frowns. “Please ignore Gonta, he’s… tired.” He looks down at Hoshi and says, “Good night, Hoshi-kun. Gonta will see you tomorrow… and we can talk about—”

“Right,” says Hoshi cutting him off. “We’ll figure something out then.”

Gonta nods at him and awkwardly shuffles off back to the dorms. Kaede watches him go for a moment before turning back to Hoshi. “So,” she says. “You two are hiding something.”

“Maybe,” he says with a shrug. “But it’s not ‘throw an impromptu party for Kiibo’ hiding.”

Kaede stares hard at him, but breaks eye contact, instead choosing to lower Saihara’s hat further over her eyes. “I guess we both have secrets, then.”

“Guess we do,” he says. “Good night, Akamatsu. Chabashira.”

Tenko nods curtly at him as he, too, wanders off back to the dorms. Kaede opens her mouth to find an excuse to give Tenko when the girl in question says, “Tenko knows that you are hiding some things from her.”

Kaede can’t find any words except as she tugs at the brim of Saihara’s hat.

Tenko watches her for a moment, then says, “Tenko knows—Tenko knows that you try to hide a lot of things from everyone to seem strong and to protect them, and that it’s really painful.”

Kaede summons as much humor as she can as she directs her next words to the ground. “Did you find out all of that from flipping me? I have to wonder what you got from the others…”

Tenko’s mouth pulls into a tight line. “Tenko… has always been able to see if her opponent’s hearts were in turmoil.”

“So that means?” 

“Yes,” she says shortly. “Tenko… pried into some things she probably shouldn’t have.”

“I didn’t mean—”

Tenko spins on her heel to face the dorms. “It’s fine. We can talk about this later. Right now,” she begins walking, “Tenko needs to make sure Momota-san does not make his injury worse.”

Kaede moves to walk in step with her, though the silence remains thick and uncomfortable on the short walk back to the dorms. To Kaede’s absolute relief, Tenko pushes open the doors to the dorms at roughly the same time Momota seems to emerge from his room for the night.

The heavy atmosphere is lost on him, and he greets them with a wave and a bright smile as he gingerly walks down the stairs from his room. Tenko moves to stand firm at the bottom of the staircase, hands on her hips. His grin falls off his face almost instantaneously. “Alright, what now?”

“You are hurt and attempting to exercise will only exacerbate your injuries,” she says.

He rolls his eyes. “C’mon. You fucking checked me out yourself and—” his words die at the grim look on Tenko’s face. 

“You need to rest,” she says, voice a touch gentler. 

Momota runs a hand through his hair. “That bad, huh?” Tenko does not verbally respond, but he sighs, seemingly answering himself. “Whatever. I’m still telling you I fucking feel fine. You don’t need to breathe down my neck or any of that shit.”

Kaede comes to stand beside Tenko. “Will you rest?”

He shrugs. “Nah, but there was something else I was plannin’ on doing tonight.”

“And that is?” Kaede asks.

Momota looks at her for a moment, seemingly debating something, before saying, “I spent most of the fucking afternoon in my room, and I heard Harukawa come back and fucking punch a hole through her wall or something when she realized someone went through her stuff.”

“Tenko believes that was Ouma-san,” she says.

“Well,” Momota says. “I’m gonna go try and talk her out of giving him a real funeral then if she ever finds out.”

“You’re,” says Kaede, “still trying to talk to her?”

“Hey,” he says. “It’s my fucking job, isn’t it, boss?”

Kaede frowns but turns to Tenko. “Let’s just go.”

Tenko glances uneasily between the two, but doesn’t echo a word of protest as she follows behind Kaede back to the doors outside, Momota retreat back up the stairs sounding behind them. Kaede places a hand on the doors, then presses one finger to her lips when Tenko looks at her quizzically.

Almost directly above them, Kaede hears Momota rapidly press the buzzer to what she assumes is Maki’s room. His voice calls out, “Hey, Harukawa—Harumaki. I need to talk to you about something.”

He rings, three, four, five, more times before Kaede hears the soft click of Maki’s door opening. She says, “Why are you here again?”

“‘Cause I want to talk to you,” he says brightly. “Do I need a better reason?”

There is a moment of silence, then Maki says, “I don’t understand you. Why can’t you just leave me alone like everyone else?”

“I just wanna make friends,” he says plainly. “And I don’t really think you like being alone, so I figured I’d be your friend.”

“Of course, I want to be alone,” she says quickly. “Don’t be stupid.”

“I didn’t say you didn’t want to be alone. I said you don’t like being alone,” Momota says. “Small difference. But it’s pretty fucking important, you know?”

There’s more silence, and Kaede hears Tenko shift uneasily next to her before Maki says, “So you feel sorry for me. Is that it?”

“No, I—” Kaede hears Momota abruptly stop speaking, then the clatter of his feet as he moves back to brace one hand against the rail. A hacking cough over takes him, and Kaede hears Maki take a step toward him as he rasps out, “I’m fine—I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

The coughing continues on too long, and Maki says, “There’s something wrong with you, isn’t there?”

He gives her a wheezing laugh. “You gonna say that to me every time?”

She says, “You’re hurt, you’re sick, and you’ve decided to come talk to me. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Don’t see how those things are related,” Momota says, his coughing finally seeming to subside. 

“You don’t think I’m dangerous?”

“Are you fucking kidding?” he asks. “I’ve seen your goddamn lab—you could probably kill me a hundred different ways.”

“Then you’re just an idiot, then,” she concludes.

“You didn’t let me finish,” Momota says. “You could probably kill me a hundred different ways, but I don’t think you will. Just ‘cause someone can do something doesn’t mean they will.”

Maki falls silent, and Momota presses on. “Also—maybe you’re just gonna call me a fucking idiot again—but I like to think most people don’t like killing. So maybe you’re used to it or some shit, but that doesn’t mean you like doing it. And I believe that if you could stop, you would.”

Maki goes quiet again before she says, “I feel nothing when I kill people. Did you know that? I could snap your neck, right now and feel nothing. Would you believe in me then?”

“I believe in you now,” Momota says evenly. “So, if you really love killing people, you can do it.” Kaede hears more shifting and pictures him standing before her, arms held out to his sides, waiting for her blow. “If all that’s actually fucking true, you can give me your best shot right now.”

Kaede holds her breath, and Maki’s voice rings out, “You actually do want to be killed, don’t you?”

“No,” says Momota. “And it seems like you don’t actually want to kill. So,” Kaede hears more shifting feet, “where do you think we should go from here?”

“I think you should leave me alone,” Maki hisses.

This time Momota’s the one to go silent until he lets out a sigh. “You don’t have to push people away, you know. Or at least, you don’t need to push me away.”

“You think I’m scared of being hurt by other people?” Maki asks in a dangerously quiet voice. “You think I’m some damsel you can save an—”

“ _I think_ ,” Momota says. “That you’re afraid of hurting someone—maybe fucking snapping and doing something you’d regret, especially considering where we are. But,” and Kaede can hear the smile in his voice, “you can knock me down as many fucking times as you want, and I’ll keep coming back.”

She sighs. “I don’t understand you.”

“Then we can get to know each other,” he replies easily. “We can fucking hangout together tomorrow or something. Some people are throwing a party—you should come.”

Kaede hears the creaking of Maki beginning to close her door, but very quietly she says, “I’ll think about it,” before she clicks it shut.

At the sound Kaede pushes the doors to outside open as quietly as she can, and gestures for Tenko to follow her into the night. Alone, Tenko whispers, “What were they talking about? Harukawa-san speaks very softly, so Tenko didn’t catch everything.”

Kaede thinks for a moment, then says, “I think… it was mostly just Kaito being a good person. Better than me, anyway.”

She says, “Kaede-san…” 

Kaede shakes her head. “We can talk later—we have all night, and if we keep hanging out right outside the dorms, Kaito might actually catch on.” Tenko nods in understanding, so Kaede continues to say, “Let’s skip regular training tonight. I have something else in mind.”

-

Tenko doesn’t ask any questions as they sneak across the gardens with only the moon for light or when Kaede leads her to the greenhouse and down into the dark tunnels below. When she finishes descending the ladder, Kaede brushes her hands together and says, “I figured we should give escaping this way one last shot before Angie-san gets Iruma-san to build something to block it off.”

Tenko finishes the climb as well, saying, “Do you she would do that?” as she steps off the ladder.

“Angie-san or Iruma-san?” Kaede asks. 

Tenko frowns, thinking for a moment before saying, “Angie-san already announced as much, but would Iruma-san really do something to stop us from trying to escape?”

“I honestly don’t know,” says Kaede. “Maybe I don’t know her that well, but I get the feeling there isn’t much Iruma-san wouldn’t do if it meant fitting in.” She pauses for a moment, letting the dank air settle around her. “I think she and Kiibo-kun might have that in common, even if he does try to be rational most of the time.”

“That sounds right,” Tenko says. “You’re very good at reading people, Kaede-san.”

“No, I’m not,” Kaede says. “I’ve just been paying a lot of attention to Iruma-san lately. For better or for worse, she’s one of the few people here I think we can trust.” She pauses at her words, and corrects to say, “Us, being everyone who’s not the mastermind.”

Tenko hesitates for a moment. Then, “Kaede-san, Tenko was thinking about what Angie-san said earlier, and,” she shifts from foot to foot, “do you really think one of us is the mastermind?”

“I do,” Kaede says. “I’ve,” she tugs at Saihara’s hat, “I’ve seen too much evidence to think otherwise, and,” she sighs, “if there isn’t, that means too many people have died for nothing.”

Tenko’s eyes flicker up to Saihara’s hat and then back down to Kaede, staring at the ground with a look of near exhaustion. Softly, she says, “Is that why Saihara-san killed Amami-san? He never was able to tell us why he did it…”

Kaede bites the inside of her check as Tenko unintentionally twists the knife in her gut, saying, “Kaede-san, it would have been impossible for you to have known he would do something like that. You can’t blame yourself.”

Kaede takes a deep breath. “Thank you, but… that’s not why I blame myself. The truth is, if it hadn’t been for me—and me being so convinced I was right about everything—  
they would both probably still be alive.”

“Tenko… doesn’t understand,” she says, confusion beginning to creep into her voice. “What are you talking about?”

Kaede takes a moment to compose herself, and she walks to the tunnel’s entrance, placing her hand against the smooth wall. “I wanted to come here to try to escape one last time,” she says, “but now I’m wondering if I just wanted to remind myself of my first great failure. If I hadn’t pushed every so hard that first day, I wonder how things would have turned out.”

Tenko remains silent, but Kaede hears her sandals padding against the ground, coming to stand behind her. Kaede asks, “Tenko-san, when you read someone’s heart, it probably makes it easier to figure out when they’re lying afterwards, right? Since you already know the… emotional truth, I guess?”

“That is true,” Tenko says nervously.

“Okay, then,” says Kaede. She squeezes her eyes shut. “At the first trial, Saihara-kun was the one lying. Everything I said was true. I tried to kill the mastermind, but I failed and Amami-kun died because of me. I’m the one who killed him—but for some reason I’m still here, and I don’t know why.”

The small sounds of Tenko fidgeting abruptly stop. Kaede doesn’t dare to face her. To the tunnel leading out before her, Kaede says, “What do you think of that?” and her voice echoes back.

Eventually the sound of Tenko’s footsteps begin again, and she comes to stand beside Kaede, staring into the pitch darkness of the tunnel. “Tenko thinks… Tenko thinks that there has to be more to what happened.” With more confidence, she begins, “Kaede-san, all of your grief is real, and you just said you were trying to stop the mastermind, so—”

“I killed someone!” Kaede snaps at her. “I killed Amami-kun! He was someone we knew, and he’s dead because of me! Doesn’t that bother you?”

Tenko looks at her wide eyed, but stands her ground. Kaede feels, hot angry tears beginning to well up in her eyes as everything in her head suddenly feels like it’s exploding. “How can that not bother you?” she shouts. “I killed someone, and after going on, and on, _and on_ about how I was going to protect Saihara-kun, I let him take the fall for me!”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says, the firmness in her voice stopping Kaede in her tracks. “You’re not making any sense.”

Kaede begins brushing away the tears threatening to run down her face. “What doesn’t make sense? I’m a murderer—why doesn’t anyone here care about people being murderers?”

And Tenko immediately understands something. She places a hand on Kaede’s shoulder. “Kaede-san, calm down and think about everything you’ve been saying.” Kaede doesn’t respond, instead continuing to wipe at her tears. “You’re letting your guilt consume you—you said yourself earlier that Tenko can still read her opponent’s hearts… and she knows you’re not lying, but that your guilt is clouding everything.”

Kaede lets out a humorless laugh between her slowly subsiding sobs. “Please, don’t make excuses for me. I know what I did, and I know that I failed.”

“You said you tried to stop the mastermind to save everyone,” Tenko says. “And then when… Amami-san accidentally died, you tried to take responsibility for his death. You,” Tenko bites her lip, debating her next words, “acted recklessly, but it was a risk you felt you need to take.”

“It was stupid,” Kaede said. “The whole plan was stupid from start to finish. If I had actually trusted someone like I kept going on about doing, or if I had—”

“There are many things you could have done,” Tenko says. “You can always beat yourself up over your mistakes, or,” she offers her a gentle smile, “you can keep moving, and right now, Tenko thinks you’re already beginning to fix one of your mistakes.”

“And that is?” 

“You’re trusting Tenko,” she says plainly. “And Tenko promises she’ll trust you, too.”

Kaede falls silent. She brushes away the last of the tears still prickling in her eyes, and gives her a wry smile, “you know trusting me is what got Saihara-kun killed, right?”

“Saihara-san was killed by the mastermind and Monokuma,” says Tenko. “You can’t fool Tenko, Kaede-san. She was there, and she saw everything you said and did to try and save him.”

Kaede takes a deep breath and reaches up to pick Saihara’s hat off her head, and begin turning it in her hands. “I still failed. Saihara-kun seemed like a really nice, really sweet person, and I know he believed in me more than anyone else.” She sighs, “and when I think about him, I just think about how much pain he was in when he died and how badly I failed. I don’t know if he’s even a person to me anymore…” she grips the fabric tightly. “And I’m so tired feeling awful about everything, but that’s too selfish, isn’t it? I mean, he doesn’t get to feel anything anymore…”

Tenko remains quiet a moment longer, then slowly and deliberately moves to take Saihara’s hat out of Kaede’s hands and places it back on her head. “Tenko has always believed in living with all your emotions at in the open, but it’s also possible to become overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion, so,” she gives her an encouraging smile, “let’s take a break for now?”

“A break?” Kaede asks, adjusting Saihara’s hat back into place.

“Yes,” says Tenko. “We can take an emotional break, and,” she shifts to stare boldly into the tunnels, “and ‘blow off some steam’ from physical exercise like you said earlier.”

Kaede takes another moment to even her breathing before she nods. “Alright—I mean, you didn’t come down here to hear me go on and on about my feelings. But,” she gives Tenko her first genuine smile of the night, “thank you. And also, I know you will, but, please keep this between us. I’m not… ready to tell the others about what really happened yet.”

Tenko nods. “Tenko promises she will not say a word.”

Kaede smiles at her one more time before turning to face the tunnels. “Alright, then. Now that I’m done crying, let’s get out of here.”

The tunnels are perhaps somehow even more brutal than Kaede remembers, and each pitfall and flamethrower seem to take on an almost malicious nature in their programmed goal to stop her. But each time she trips or stumbles back to avoid a fresh wall of flames, Kaede hears Tenko’s voice ring out with encouragement not to keep going but to do her best. 

It isn’t a surprise than neither of them make it even close to the end, and after what Kaede counts as the tenth try, she lets herself collapse on the ground, Tenko pacing around the opening room, trying to catch her breath. “Guess we’re… not getting out… today,” Kaede says between gasps.

Tenko nods. “Tenko… doesn’t know if… it’s possible…”

Kaede shakes her head. “Maybe not… but it’s our only… way out…”

Tenko paces a bit more, then stops to swallow, collecting herself as she says, “Would you like to try again? Or should we stop here for the night?”

“We should probably stop,” Kaede says, pulling herself to her feet. “I feel like I’m just banging my head against a wall. And also,” she walks over to Tenko and smiles softly, “I’m trying to learn from my mistakes, and pushing everyone to hard here was definitely a mistake.”

Tenko nods in agreement and they make the walk back out into the gardens. On the trail back, Tenko freezes, tugging at Kaede’s sleeve and pointing to the arbor. Kaede squints her tried eyes to see a small but familiar figure sitting on one of the benches, resting their head on the table. She also makes out the outline of a witch hat at roughly the same time, Tenko breathes out, “Yumeno-san,” and heads towards her.

Yumeno remains still as they approach and stirs only when Tenko gently shakes her shoulders. She snaps her head up in a moment, greatly startled until she rubs the sleep away from her bleary eyes to make out exactly who woke her up in the dark. She blinks at the two girls nervously staring down at her, and says, “Oh, you guys finally made it.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “Were you waiting for us, Yumeno-san?”

She nods. “Yeah. You guys train out here to become stronger and more helpful and stuff, right?”

“That’s right,” says Tenko. “Yumeno-san, did you want to come train with us?”

“No,” she says, jutting out her lower lip. “Training’s too much work…”

“Then why are you here?” Kaede asks.

Yumeno looks up at both of them, and then down at her small hands in her lap. “I dunno. Figured I could watch or something…”

“You wanted to watch Tenko and Kaede-san train?” Tenko asks.

“Yeah…” she says. “But not in a weird way.”

“Well,” Tenko says. “Kaede-san and Tenko just finished, but you could come tomorrow night, Yumeno-san.”

Yumeno pauses, seeming to mull over her words. “Maybe. Waiting all night was a lot of work, though…”

Kaede bites back the urge to point out she was taking a nap, and instead chooses to ask, “Why do you want to train—er, watch us train, Yumeno-san?”

She looks away and slumps off the bench and on to her feet. “I dunno. I just did.”

“Oh, Tenko thinks she gets it!” she announces. “Is it like how some people believe you can become good at a video game just by watching other people play it?”

Kaede frowns. “I don’t follow.”

“Yumeno-san,” Tenko says. “Do you want to become stronger by watching us train?”

“I dunno—maybe,” she says as she begins to shuffle away from them back to the dorms. “Training seems like too much work… maybe watching’s too much work, too…”

Tenko immediately starts walking after her, and Kaede jogs the first few steps after them to keep up. “Yumeno-san!” Tenko calls out. “Tenko believes you can do anything if you put your mind to it—even if it’s hard.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Yumeno mumbles, pointedly not looking back her.

“But it is!” Tenko insists. “Especially for someone as amazing as you, Yumeno-san!”

“But you always hover over—”

“And Tenko knows not to now,” she says. “Tenko knows Yumeno-san is a strong person who needs her space. But, she also wants her to know that Tenko will always be ready to help her if she asks—even the strongest people need to rely on others sometime.”

They reach the doors to the dorms, and Kaede barely catches Yumeno darkly mutter under her breath, “I don’t think you’ll ever need to rely on me,” before disappearing inside.

Tenko follows after her, and Kaede sees the two of them already ascending the stairs up to their rooms. The door to Yumeno’s slams shut, and Tenko pauses, near heartbroken on the middle of the staircase, one hand still held out to the small girl. She breathes out, “Yumeno-san…” to the near empty building.

Kaede walks to the bottom of the staircase, and says up to her, “Maybe you should wait until tomorrow to talk to her—give her a little emotional break for right now.”

Tenko turns to her and nods curtly. “Tenko will… tomorrow,” she says. “Goodnight, Kaede-san.”

“Goodnight, Tenko-san,” and Kaede heads to her own room, her limbs feeling the lightest they have in a long time.

-

The next morning, a second announcement follows Monokuma’s morning wakeup call, telling them all to meet in the gym bright and early.

Kaede already feels the knots in her stomach growing as she makes the trek out of the dorms to whatever new horror awaits them. She sees a few of the others as she passes, each one clearly moving with the same dread she feels—with the exception of Ouma who merrily skips ahead of her and into the school. 

She enters the gym and immediately moves to stand beside Tenko and slightly away from the others. Everyone files in, and Kaede does not miss the way Maki stays close to Momota rather than straying to the sides by herself like so many times before. And of course, Momota is the first to break the uneasy silence, shouting, “Everyone’s here! Now what the hell do you fucking want from us?!”

Monokuma pops out from the stage. “I thought you’d never ask!” 

The three remaining Monokubs appear at the foot of the stage, and Kaede spies a strange black book held in the hands of the green one. Monokuma goes on, announcing, “You’ve all finished your very spooky exploration, so now it’s time for your very spooky motive!”

Monodam waddles over to Angie and lifts the book up to her. She takes it easily, saying, “Oh, thank you!” and patting the robotic bear’s head.

Monodam says, “THIS-MOTIVE-WILL-HELP-YOU-ALL-BECOME-FRIENDS-AND-GET-ALONG.”

“That’s right, that’s right, that’s right!” says Monokuma. “Because this motive will bring in a new—well, technically old—transfer student!”

“Transfer student?” Momota parrots.

“Transfer student!” Monokuma says. “Using the secrets hidden in Monokuma’s little black book, you will be able to bring back one of your old classmates as a new transfer student to rejoin the game!”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “You—you can’t mean—”

“But I do!” he says. “With this motive, you’ll be able to bring one of your deceased classmates back to life!”

Kaede feels Tenko’s hand on her shoulder, and her faraway words attempting to ground her get lost somewhere over the sudden roar of her own heartbeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this might be the longest daily life chapter yet, haha. Also I haven't had the time to respond to comments on last chapter yet, so those will be coming very shortly--I hope you enjoyed this in the meantime!


	13. The Second Body Has Been Discovered

Monokuma keeps talking. Kaede’s mind keeps repeating that everything has to be impossible. 

Angie cradles the small black book in her arms, and when Monokuma finally finishes with a flourishing bow, Kaede hurries over to her in two long strides. Angie’s already flipping through the first few pages as Kaede moves to tower over her. “What does it say?”

Somewhere behind her, Kaede hears someone—Momota—breathe out, “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” 

Angie stops turning pages to flip to the end, her eyes skimming over the final words. Kaede hears Tenko’s hesitant footsteps approaching behind her at roughly the same time she spies Kiibo, Iruma, and Yumeno slowly gathering around them. With her student council fully assembled around her, Angie announces, “So, Angie asked God, and he said we can totally use this to bring someone back just like Monokuma said.”

Kaede’s staring down hard at the book, rationality and logic leaving her. Maki’s voice carries through the gym. “This is ridiculous.”

“Y-Yeah!” Momota agrees. “Dead’s fucking dead. This whole motive is absolute bullshit.”

“Okay, yeah, fucking science agrees with that,” Iruma says. “But if it’s complete crap, why would the furry give this to us? If he’s just talking out of his ass, and this doesn’t do anything no one would shank anyone.”

“Did you not hear what you just said?” Hoshi asks. “Whether or not it works, that book is a motive plain and simple. I say we leave it alone.”

Gonta nods. “Gonta has to agree. He feels like bad things would happen to his friends if… we tried anything.”

Momota waves his arms. “Also can’t we not fucking ignore the fact that all of this shit is impossible!? Dead’s—”

“Dead,” says Kaede, her voice numb. “You said that already.”

Tenko shifts nervously. “Kaede-san…”

Momota seems to deflate all at once, running a hand through his hair. “Alright, sorry—I know that you’re still not over—”

“How can anyone be ‘over’ what’s happened?” Kaede snaps.

Hoshi steps in as the voice of reason. “Akamatsu,” he says. “Put everything aside. This is Monokuma’s motive—doing anything with it won’t result in any good for anyone.”

“Oh?” says Angie, finally looking up for the book. “But you didn’t feel that way about the last motive, right Ryoma?”

Hoshi’s mouth forms a thin, tight line as he glares up at her. Maki’s sigh breaks the tension. “Anyway, without getting into petty arguments, I have to agree with Momota that this is all plainly impossible, even if he’s being as strange and obnoxious as possible about it.”

Momota grins. “Hey, thanks, Harumaki. I think.”

“It wasn’t a compliment,” Maki says. “Nor did I say it out of any attachment. It’s just the logical conclusion anyone not driven by blind emotions would come to.”

Kaede doesn’t miss the way her red-eyed stare lingers on her, and is almost grateful when Angie says, “Hmm, nope! Angie already said she asked God, and he says it’s totally possible.”

Kiibo nods. “Though I have to admit I hold a level of uncertainty over this plan, I, too, asked God, and he responded that we should see where the motive takes us.”

“Holy shit,” says Iruma. “Kiibs, you can fucking talk to God now?”

“I believe I can,” he answers. “I have always had my inner voice to guide me when I find myself at a point of indecision. If I ask it, it simply speaks from inside me, however, I did not assume that voice was God until speaking with Angie-san.”

Angie beams at him. “You’re amazing, Kiibo! And you’re right! God has been with you for a long time—Angie can tell!”

“Angie’s God is pretty amazing,” says Yumeno. “And if he says to try it then we should probably try it…”

“Ah, Tenko,” she says, glancing around at the other student council members. “Tenko is also slightly unsure, but right now she does not see the danger in this motive.” Her eyes dart to Kaede still biting her lip. “And if it does succeed, bringing back one of our deceased friends is an unambiguously good thing, right?”

“Oh, I getcha,” says Iruma. “There’s no fucking harm in trying, right? God says it’s cool, and if it doesn’t work then we’ll just have jack shit, but if it does we get a new zombie buddy to hang around with. Would that be fucking bitchin’ or what?”

Momota stomps towards the assembled group, throwing his arms in the air. “Okay, what the hell is going on here? Did you guys form a fucking cult or something?”

Shirogane wrings her hands. “Oh, I think I know what this is. Is this about the offer you were talking about yesterday, Angie-san?”

“Gonta is…” he says looking around. “Confused.”

“Yeah,” says Hoshi. “Someone feel like filling the rest of us in?”

“That’s right!” says Angie. She moves to stand in front of her five council members, shuffling the little black book under her arm in order to clap her hands. “So, God talked to Angie and he said that she should make sure that everyone can live here peacefully together. Angie thought a lot about how to do that, and she decided to create a student council!”

“And this student council does… what?” asks Hoshi.

Maki sighs. “The real question is who was idiotic enough to go along with it.”

“Oh, Angie’s glad you asked, Ryoma!” Angie says, pointedly ignoring Maki. “Okay, so, the student council’s purpose is to listen to God and enforce a peaceful school life to end the killing game. Everyone is welcome to join!”

“So,” says Gonta. “Does that mean the student council just wants to protect everyone?”

Angie nods. “Totally. God’s looking out for all of us, and he just wants to make sure all the murderers stop.”

Gonta seems to hesitate. “That… does not sound like a bad thing.”

“Oh, Gonta,” says Angie. “You should totally join, too! With your strength—”

“Knock it off,” says Hoshi darkly. 

Angie tilts her head. “Hmm? Is something the matter, Ryoma?”

He glares at her for a moment longer before softening his expression as he turns to address Gonta. “I’m not about to argue that stopping the killing game is a bad idea, but doing so in exchange for living here for forever?” Hoshi sighs. “Even if there is nothing for me on the outside, I can’t accept that—and none of you should either.”

Gonta looks down to him. “Hoshi-kun…”

“Gokuhara,” Hoshi continues. “You especially shouldn’t give into this nonsense. You told me you have two families waiting for you, right? Agreeing to live here forever would be a disservice to both of them.”

With those words, all of the hesitation Kaede had seen in Gonta seemed to suddenly leave him at once. “Th-That’s right!” he says. “Gonta will not give up trying to escape from here for both his friends and his families!”

“Ah, Gonta,” says Angie. “That’s too bad. But, oh well! God says the student council needs students to council, too. So that means,” she taps her chin. “Everyone except for Gonta and Ryoma are invited to join.”

Gonta deflates slightly at her words before Hoshi sighs, saying, “I wasn’t looking to anyway.”

“Also, um,” says Shirogane wringing her hands. “You still haven’t really said what the student council does yet… Are you really going to try to bring someone back to life?”

Angie nods. “Yep! God says we should, so after Kiibo’s party, Angie will get right to preparing for it. Ooh!” she shouts, suddenly turning to Yumeno. “Himiko—we can do the ritual as the last part of your magic show.”

Yumeno taps a finger to her chin. “Hmm… my magic and resurrection are two different kinds of magic, but I guess we could do one right after the other. That would mean less work in setting up, right?”

Maki rolls her eyes. “So, despite claiming that you’re trying to protect everyone, you’re also going to walk straight into whatever trap this clearly ridiculous motive is?”

“Oh, Maki,” Angie turns to her, eyes full of pity. “It makes sense that you can’t understand. Angie’s not sure if God loves you.”

For perhaps the first time, Kaede sees Maki be struck nearly speechless. Momota steps protectively in front of her, Maki too taken aback to protest. “Alright, just—shut up about your God crap,” he says. “And stop talking about this shitty mo—”

“Hey,” says Ouma, speaking up for the first time. “It’s more interesting to assume this motive works, so,” he presses a finger to his lips, “who would you bring back?”

A silence falls over the group, and far too many stares turn to Kaede for her comfort. She takes a deep breath. “I know what you’re all thinking,” she says, voice ringing through the gym. “I’m not going to pretend that…” she tugs on the brim of her hat. “You can all guess.”

Tenko steps beside her. “Tenko is unsure how… resurrection works, but if we could bring Saihara-san or Amami-san back… is there a reason not to?”

Kiibo nods. “I have to agree. Particularly as they both seemed to know quite a bit they were never able to tell us, Amami-kun especially. Being able to question them would be a very beneficial opportunity.”

“And they’d get to be alive again, _and_ it would make Akamatsu-chan happy,” says Ouma. “But you weren’t thinking about that… probably because you’re a robot.”

“Th-Those things are important, too!” says Kiibo. 

“Mhmm!” says Angie. “Also, Angie asked God, and she says we should totally try and bring back Rantarou! He seemed like he knew a lot, and he’s the only person who didn’t try to kill anyone, so God says he’s super safe.”

Kaede tugs her hat down further as Tenko begins to stutter. “A-Angie-san, even so, shouldn’t we set up the preparations first? A-And we still need to have the memorial.”

Angie clasps her hands. “Ah, that’s right, Tenko! Okay, Angie will go get her decorations and meet everyone there!” 

She skips out of the room, leaving the scattered tension behind her. 

Tenko’s the first to speak in the awkwardness that follows, her voice a saving grace from the sound of Kaede’s heart pounding in her ears. “Alright, everyone. Whether or not you are a part of the student council, attending the memorial to remember our classmates and ease tensions between us is a good idea.” She gains her confidence, placing her hands on her hips. “For the sake of everyone who is no longer with us, Tenko will even set aside her feelings towards all horrible boys and try to get along with them.”

Kiibo nods. “Yes, even if the memorial was originally presented as a party for me, I believe that we should use this opportunity to honor the memory of everyone who has passed instead of making this event about ourselves.”

“That’s right,” says Kaede. “Things have been really… tense lately, and I admit some of that is probably my fault.” She summons as much cheer as she can. “But the memorial is a good thing for everyone. Coming together and remembering everyone will only make us stronger.”

“Also,” says Yumeno. “We already set up all the decorations…”

Iruma snorts. “And it took a fucking long time, so you virgins better appreciate them.”

Kaede winces at their comments, and the non-student council members glance searchingly at each other.

Finally, Shirogane says, “Everyone who died… I didn’t know most of them very well, but… they were still our friends, right? So we should—I mean,” she smiles at Kaede, “I’ll go.”

“Gonta would like to go to,” he says. “Gonta wasn’t able to protect them before, but he isn’t going to let them down now. And a gentleman never forgets his friends.”

Hoshi sighs. “Fine—guess you convinced me to. I’ll be there.”

Kaede glances to the three remaining holdouts to see Ouma already skipping towards the doors. “Sitting around moping for people we barely knew sounds pretty boring,” he says. “Buuuut, we all get to play casino games afterwards, right?” He bounces on his heels. “I can’t wait to beat Momota-chan at everything. I bet he’s a really sore loser.”

Momota rises to the bait. “H-Hey! I’m not a fucking—you’re not going to win shit against me!” 

Maki quirks an eyebrow at him. “I take it you’re going then.”

“Uh, well,” he rubs the back of his head. “I was always planning on it. Wasn’t expecting the student council bullshit, but I’m still going. So,” he turns to Maki. “What do you say, Harumaki? You coming, too?”

She glares up at him. “Don’t call me that.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Momota grins.

“I’ll,” she fiddles with her hair, “think about it.”

Kaede’s throat tightens at Maki’s words, and she begins to lead the way out of the gym to leave them behind, calling back, “Let’s get going then.”

The members of the student council had been standing closest to the door and surround her on the trek there. Under the sound of Iruma’s inane chatter to Kiibo, she makes out Yumeno mumbling, “Are we gonna have to setup for the magic show after this, too?”

Tenko chirps a response, and Kiibo hums to whatever crass joke Iruma just made, and Kaede tries to push away how comfortable only being with them makes her. The others move behind them, and she stays firmly in her protective barrier of those she trusts. She also ignores the look she spies Momota attempting to give her and surges forward to attend a faulty memorial for all the people she killed.

-

They stay divided once they finally reach the casino, the student council remaining together while Maki strays behind Momota chasing Ouma again over some new verbal barb and Hoshi and Gonta almost passively accept Shirogane into their small talk. 

The uneasy peace moves in and then out again when Angie finally steps through the doors, four picture frames shuffled together in her arms. All attention turns to her, conversations stopping dead in their tracks as she says, “Angie’s here! And she brought the most special part, chosen specifically by God!”

Tenko rushes to assist in taking two of the frames from her grip. Kaede sees her stare wide-eyed at the still unseen picture in her hands. “Angie-san,” she says. “Your… your abilities are amazing.”

Kaede wanders around her side to stare straight into Amami’s drooping green eyes, rendered in nearly unbelievable detail. “These took you one day?” she asks. “They’re so,” she searches for the words, “lifelike.”

Angie beams at their praise. “Aw, thank you! But really you should be thanking God. For all of Angie’s art, she’s just the vessel that God sends his super amazing visions through.”

The other begin to draw closer, clearly intrigued. Kaede clears her throat and pointedly takes the portrait of Shinguji held in Tenko’s other hand. “Where should we put these?”

“Hmm,” Angie hums, tapping her chin. “God told Angie that we should just hold them and then we can have a moment of silence and prayer before playing games. So,” she walks over to Kiibo, already handing him a portrait. “Kiibo gets Kirumi, and,” she looks back at Tenko and Kaede. “Tenko can keep Rantarou, but…”

She moves to stand in front of Kaede. “Angie will hold Korekiyo because God said specifically that Kaede should get Shuuichi.”

Kaede swallows the lump forming in her throat as she switches portraits with Angie. Saihara’s one visible eye stares at her from under a near identical version of the hat on her own head. Kaede’s eyes flicker over it in all its photographic realness, and she notices Angie decided to give him a smile—the one tell that it’s only a painting. 

Her reaction is not lost on Angie who says, “Also, God says that since Kaede has been a super great student council member so far, she should get to keep Shuuichi’s portrait.”

Kaede’s eyes suddenly snap down to Angie’s smile, and through the roar of her emotions clouding over her, she sees a touch of something more sympathetic amidst Angie’s usual static cheer. “Thank you, Angie-san.”

“Of course!” she says. Then, addressing the group, “Okay, so everyone gather in a circle so Angie can say a few words before we start the prayer.”

The student council members easily shift into place, and Kaede finds herself between Tenko and Angie with Kiibo flanking Angie’s other side to arrange all the portraits in a row. The others exchange various begrudging looks before slowly forming a circle, Angie’s increasingly dark smile watching over them as they take far too much time to follow her instructions. 

With everyone gather together, Angie says, “God says Angie should start the eulogy and after that anybody else can say something if they want to. So first, Angie wants to say that she’s prayed super hard after every death to make sure all of her friends would be let into heaven. And that means that even if it’s sad they’re not here anymore, they’re with God, so Angie knows they’re all okay.”

She speaks for a bit more, and Kaede remembers wandering into Angie after Amami’s death and how she had hoped beyond all logic that she had been right in saying he was okay somehow. The thought that even with his skull bashed in, Amami was alright did not make Kaede’s guilt suddenly disappear, but it brought a peace to her she had known she had been missing since before her confession to Tenko the night before.

Her eyes darted to the girl in question, stone-faced, for once, holding Amami’s portrait as if it was made of glass. Then, she hears Angie finish, saying, “Okay, so, does anyone else have anything they want to say?”

Kiibo quickly says, “I would.” He sighs looking down at Tojo’s portrait, and Kaede does not miss the hand Iruma hesitantly places on his shoulder in a halting attempt at comforting him. “I… admired Tojo-san quite a bit. She easily took on tasks of carrying for all of us without complaint and handled them to the best of her abilities without ever letting her dignity or grace falter. She was… I thought she was truly someone to look up to.”

Then, to Kaede’s surprise, Iruma says, “Well, maybe she still is.” The focus of the entire room suddenly shifts to her, and Iruma squirms under their stares as she continues. “I-I mean, I always thought she was a fucking frigid bitch, but, you know, she was good at shit, and she was proud of that—even if was just cleaning toilets and crap.”

Kiibo glances up to her. “Iruma-san?”

“I-I’m just saying,” she says. “That—I don’t fucking know—maybe she tried to kill the gimp, and that was really shitty, but you can still admire her or whatever. I mean, I think she was had a fucking stick up her ass and all that, but… maybe she did some crap but that’s not the _only_ part of her, you know? So you can admire her and shit if you still want to…”

Kiibo’s eyes practically glow. “Iruma-san…” he turns back to the group, smiling widely and completely oblivious to the burning blush rising over Iruma’s face. “I agree with Iruma-san. Even if Tojo-san made some bad decisions, I believe she was still our friend and still an admirable person. And I believe the same about Shinguji-kun and Saihara-kun… even if they turned to murder at the end of their lives.”

“Huh,” says Ouma. 

Kiibo turns to him. “Yes, Ouma-kun? Would you also like to say a few words?”

“Hmm?” he asks. “Oh, did you say something, Kiiboy? I wasn’t listening.”

Kiibo sighs. “Alright then… Would anyone else like to speak?”

Kaede feels far too many sets up eyes turns to her. However, Gonta’s voice is quick to ring out over the group, to her endless relief. “Gonta,” he says. “Gonta knows now that he couldn’t have predicted what would happen to his friends, but… he still regrets not being there to protect them. It’s a gentleman’s job to protect his friends, and for their sake, Gonta will do his absolute best from now on to protect everyone else.”

“Well said,” says Hoshi.

“Hmm,” Angie hums. “That sounds like a good idea, Gonta. God will be counting on you.”

“O-Okay,” he says with a confused nod. 

“Um,” says Shirogane. “I’m not sure if I have a lot to say, but,” she fidgets with her hands, “I think that we should remember everyone and not let ourselves be overcome with despair over their deaths. We should… keep moving forward with hope for them. At least,” she hugs one of her arms, “I think that’s what they would want.”

Kaede summons her courage as she says, “That’s right. Just wallowing in our misery and being overwhelmed by sadness—there’s no way they would want that.”

“Hmm?” says Ouma tilting his head. “Is that so?”

The silence surrounding the group suddenly becomes uncomfortable. “Yes,” says Kaede, weighing her words. “Of course it is. Ouma-kun, are you trying to imply something?”

“Oh, no,” he says brightly. “I just think it’s funny—that’s all.”

“Nothing about what has happened to our friends is funny,” Tenko bites out at him. “Even for an awful boy, your behavior is simply the worst.”

“Me?” he asks. “But I never tried to kill anyone. How can I be the worst?”

His words feel like a slap in the face, and Tenko quickly says, “Tenko knows how you feel about—” she seems startled at her own words and rephrases to, “—murder is inexcusable, but there is nothing to be accomplished by blaming them. Everyone knows that our true enemy is Monokuma, not each other.”

Ouma taps a finger to his chin. “We sure do keep saying that, don’t we?”

“Hey, Kokichi,” says Angie. “God says that this is your first warning, and if you say anything bad again, then you’ll have to leave.”

Ouma begins to pout, tears already forming his eyes. “You’re going to kick me out? But I haven’t even told any lies yet… well, that is a lie, but you know…”

Momota sighs. “Just fucking ignore him—he’s a lost cause. Can we get to the moment of silence or whatever?”

“Okay!” says Angie. “So everyone, we’re all going to be quiet, and Angie wants everyone to send their very best prayers to God!”

Angie bows her head, and an awkward silence follows her words as everyone exchanges vaguely confused looks. Yumeno asks “When does it start?” and Tenko gently shushes her.

Kaede glances around and sees a few of the others have closed their eyes, some seem to simply stare down at the ground, and Ouma continues to rock back and forth on his heels, giving her a cheerful wave when she makes eye contact with him. Her eyes quickly dart away when he mimes a tipping of her hat, and Kaede’s mind runs afresh with too much guilt and worry to properly form anything resembling the prayers Angie had spoken of.

After a few minutes of uneasy silence pass, Angie blinks back up at the group. “Hmm, does everyone feel better now?”

“Are we supposed to?” Maki mutters darkly under her breath. 

“Okay! God is super glad everyone is happy now,” says Angie, ignoring Maki once again. “So, everyone should be really careful with Angie’s portraits, but other than that, everyone can go play games!”

“I’ll pass,” says Maki, already heading to the door. “I think I’ve wasted enough time here already.”

“Hey!” shouts Momota after her. “Harumaki!”

She doesn’t answer back and they hear her footsteps fade into the distance. 

“Oh, Kaito,” says Angie. “Don’t worry about her—she’s probably just never had to feel bad about someone dying before.”

Momota spins on his heel. “What is that supposed to mean? She’s not a fucking robot.”

Kiibo frowns. “I do not see what being a robot has to do with empathetic capabilities.”

“Yeah,” says Iruma. “Kiibs’s got empathy flowing out of his ass.”

Momota waves a hand. “You know what I mean.”

Ouma hums. “I can’t say I disagree with Harukawa-chan. Being forced to feel sorry for and say nice things about a bunch of killers sure is weird. Of course, we have a lot of killers here anyway, so…”

Kaede bites her lip, but Hoshi is the one to rise to the bait, pulling his hat down with a sign. “I’ve already said a thousand times that I don’t do that anymore.”

“That’s right,” says Gonta. “And Gonta believes in Hoshi-kun.”

“Oh?” says Ouma. “Like how Kiiboy believed in Tojo-chan? Or how Akamatsu-chan believed in Saihara-chan?”

Kaede glares at him while Tenko says, “Ouma-san, Angie-san already warned you once, and Tenko will not hesitate to remove you from this building.”

“Aw,” he pouts. “But if I get stuck outside with Harukawa-chan, I’ll be killed for sure…”

“She doesn’t do shit like that anymore,” says Momota. “Chabashira, can you kick him out already?”

“Hmm, no,” says Angie. “God says that Kokichi still only has one warning.”

Hoshi looks up at her. “Is there a reason why you’re taking his side?”

“Just fucking ignore her,” says Momota. “Kick his ass, Chabashira.”

Angie’s smile darkens. “Ah, no thanks, Tenko. God still wants everyone to stay together and no one to fight.”

“Alright,” says Momota, throwing his hands in the air. “Is anyone else fucking sick of listening to her? You’ve been ordering us around since the trial ended, and I’ve fucking had enough.”

“Though I wouldn’t phrase it like that,” says Hoshi. “I have to agree.”

“Ooh! Ooh!” shouts Ouma. “I love anarchy!”

“Mmm, but you see,” says Angie. “God says that Angie’s the leader now. We all even voted on it, too, so it just makes sense that everyone—”

“Wait,” says Kaede. “When did we vote on that?”

Kiibo nods. “I also cannot recall voting for such a thing.”

“Oh, we did when you guys weren’t there,” says Ouma.

“Well, that’s not true,” says Angie. “We did it in the computer room when we were exploring. Everyone was getting all mad, so we had a vote of no confidence against Kaede.”

Kaede feels her mouth fall open in shock.

Shirogane says, “Um, wait, I-I thought that was a vote to let Harukawa-san see the Flashback Light.”

“It was,” says Momota darkly. “Everyone still wants Kaede to be the leader.”

“Oh, Kaito,” Angie says. “God doesn’t like it when you lie.”

“And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asks taking a threatening step towards her.

“Well,” says Angie. “The way Angie saw it, the person who was fighting Kaede the most was you, right? And you were the person who led the vote against her, right? Angie just thought that all made sense.”

Momota stands agape as Hoshi says, “Putting the vote aside, I think we can all agree we still want Akamatsu to be our leader. Right, Akamatsu?”

Kaede shakes herself. “Of course. I’ll still try my best to lead everyone if that’s what—”

“But no one listened to her,” says Angie. “Aaand, four people did die on her watch, so God really thinks someone else should have a turn. _Aaand_ Kaede is also super cool with being a part of Angie’s student council, so there really isn’t a problem.”

“Angie-san—” Kaede begins

“You still want to be on the student council, right Kaede?” Angie asks. 

She glances up from Angie’s unmoving stare to Tenko’s pleading eyes. “Well, I—”

“Why are you hesitating!?” Momota yells. “Angie is obviously on a complete power trip with the motive and now this student council bullshit—do something!”

“Stop yelling at her,” says Tenko, moving between them. “Kaede-san is trying to talk to Angie-san right now.”

“Is she?” asks Ouma. 

“Of course she fucking is!” shouts Iruma, jabbing a finger in his direction. “Also, while we’re fucking accusing people of shit—I know one of you cocksuckers stole my drone.”

“Gonta… doesn’t understand what that has to do with anything,” he says.

Hoshi sighs. “It doesn’t. She’s just looking for attention.”

“I’m looking for my goddamn drone!” she yells. “One of you asshole snuck into my lab and stole it!”

“No one cares about your fucking drone,” says Momota. “Right now I’m trying to talk to Kaede.”

“Is yelling at her really the same as talking to her?” Yumeno asks.

“Everyone—“ Kiibo tries to say as the yelling begins to rise.

Angie says, “Kaito, you now have one warning.”

“Like hell Chabashira’s going to kick me out,” he says.

“Tenko is beginning to think about it.”

“What the hell is wrong with you guys all of sudden?” he shouts. 

“I’d guess they’ve all been brainwashed,” Ouma says nonchalantly. 

“Everyone, please—” Kiibo says again, moving to stand in the center of the group.

Iruma throws her hands in the air. “No one fucking touched my genius brain, but someone did touch my—”

“Iruma-san,” says Shirogane. “I don’t think now is really the time to talk about your drone…”

“Yeah,” says Momota. “Like I said, no one cares about your shitty—”

“Momota-san,” says Tenko. “Please do not yell at Iruma-san.” 

“Hey, no one’s listening to God,” says Angie. “And he says that everyone needs to listen to Angie, and ignoring God is a sin.”

“Stop lording your God over us,” says Hoshi. “No one else wants to join your cult.”

“Ryoma, you also now have one warning,” she answers.

“Everyone!” Kiibo shouts above the noise. “This is not the place where we should be fighting.”

Kaede makes out his words through the roar, and she steps forward, saying, “Kiibo-kun’s right. We didn’t come here to yell at each other like this. We can talk about these things later, but right now—”

Somewhere, somehow amidst the yelling and various flailing limbs, Kaede feels herself be jabbed in the side by an elbow with enough force to send her staggering. Her grip on Saihara’s portrait falters, and it clatters to the ground in the middle of the circle. Tenko is quick on her feet to assist in steadying her, but at the moment that Kaede recovers enough to beginning reaching for the portrait again, Momota takes a dramatic step towards Angie and his foot crashes straight through the frame and paper below.

The sound of shattering glass immediately screeches all conversations a halt. Momota jerks his now bleeding foot back with a hiss and a panicked expression as he looks up to Kaede staring down with wide eyes. “Holy shit. Kaede—I-I am so fucking sorry,” he stutters out. “I didn’t mean to—”

He shifts to put weight on his now injured foot and nearly collapses. Gonta hurries to his side to stop him from falling. Momota just curses under his breath, “Fuck—I’m fine. I’m—fuck.”

Shirogane presses her hands to her mouth. “Is that your injured leg?” Momota doesn’t respond, grimacing at her comment as she kneels down to examine the pieces of broken glass still sticking out of his foot. “Ah, Momota-kun, you should really go sit down somewhere…”

Momota winces as she experimentally reaches forward to try and remove one of the pieces. “Stop!” he snaps, and Shirogane jerks her hand back. “I mean… fuck. I’ll just,” he looks up at Kaede. “I’ll head back to my room…”

“Gonta will help you,” Gonta says sternly. 

“I’m coming, too,” says Hoshi. “I know a thing or two about disinfecting cuts…”

A second of silence passes, and Momota doesn’t put up a fight, just sighing. “Fine. I’m sorry for fucking ruining everything,” he forces a laugh and raises his foot, saying, “Guess I had this coming.”

Kaede’s eyes remained fixed on the destroyed portrait as she says, “It’s fine. You didn’t mean to…”

He gives her a curt nod and limps off with Gonta’s support. Hoshi follows after them with Shirogane nervously trailing behind. Kaede finally looks up to see only student council members surrounding her, and she absently realizes Ouma ran off sometime during the confusion. 

She sighs and kneels, beginning to carefully shuffle broken glass into one of her hands. “Guess we should clean this up,” she says. “Well, the memorial was nice before this…”

Tenko drops to her knees and begins to gather pieces as well, Kiibo following her along with a grumbling Iruma after sending her a prompting look. Tenko says, “Tenko is sorry this happened, Kaede-san.”

“It’s fine,” she says, her words numb.

Iruma mumbles under her breath, “I still wanna know what happened to my fucking drone…”

Above them, Angie says, “It’s really too bad what happened—Angie worked really hard on those… Oh well,” she clasps her hands together. “Angie was going to make new sculptures for the resurrection ritual, anyway.”

“Sculptures?” Yumeno asks.

Kaede frowns. “Are we still doing the ritual? I’m not so sure about it anymore… so far all it’s done is make everyone fight.”

She carefully moves her pieces to Tenko’s outstretched hands, before standing. Angie says, “Kaede? Did you change your mind? Angie thought that everything that happened would just make you want to do it more.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “I… don’t think I understand what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, just,” she leans down to easily grab the broken frame, “you know, all these bad things keep happening when you try to remember Shuuichi, and Angie’s always thought that choosing not to save someone is just like killing them, right? And Angie doesn’t think that Kaede would want to do that, soooo…”

Kaede’s mouth forms a tight line, and she grabs the frame out of Angie’s hands a touch too roughly. Instead of responding, she says, “I’ll go throw this away.”

“Tenko will come, too,” Tenko says, hurriedly displaying her hands full of broken glass to the others before rushing after Kaede. 

They leave the others behind, and Kaede catches Yumeno saying, “I dunno if you should have said that…”

“Said what?” Angie asks. 

She barely makes out Yumeno mumbling, “Nothing…” before turning the corner away from them.

Alone with Tenko, Kaede finally begins letting some of tension ease out of her. “That,” she says. “Was awful… Everything about that.”

“It was a nice idea,” Tenko assures. “Even if,” her eyes dart to the frame in Kaede’s hands, “things did not work out. Also Tenko is sure Momota-san didn’t mean too, even if he is a clumsy boy.”

“I know,” Kaede says with a sigh. They reach the trashcans, and she stares down at the ruined picture. “I’m not mad at him. I just… wish I could stop things from falling apart all the time.”

Tenko carefully lets the glass fall from her hands and into the trashcan, and Kaede lets her eyes roam over the portrait one last time before placing it in the garbage. Kaede forces a laugh, saying, “I really liked Saihara-kun, too. I wish I could stop throwing him away.”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says, a tightness in her words. “Tenko wanted to ask you something. She knows how you feel about Saihara-san, and Amami-san, too, but do you really think we should do the ritual?”

“No,” Kaede says with a shake of her head. “Not anymore. I mean, I always thought it was impossible, but I think part of me was just holding on to,” she sighs, “false hope, I guess. I thought last night I had finally come to terms with what happened, but I guess there’s… quite a difference between saying something and actually doing it.”

Tenko nods. “It’s not your fault. Monokuma’s motive blindsided us all. Also, Tenko’s starting to think that might be the real trick behind this motive.”

“What do you mean?”

She crosses her arms. “Tenko does not believe resurrection is possible. The flows of energy and life cannot simply be reserved, no matter how much we may want them to. Tenko… also does not believe Monokuma would ever present a motive that would do more good than harm to us.”

“That’s definitely true,” Kaede says. “So what do you think the real purpose is? To get us to fight?”

“Mostly,” says Tenko. “Bringing back our dead friends… Tenko believes it is impossible to approach such an issue without strong emotions, and with tensions among us about what it means to be a killer running high…”

“The entire thing seems like it’s set to play right into that, isn’t it?” Kaede says. “I… haven’t been thinking about this logically, but that all makes a lot of sense.”

“Tenko thinks this motive is designed to make people throw out logic,” she says. “Tenko has always believed in living proudly with her emotions to the fullest, but she knows that it is also easy to become blinded by them and do reckless things.”

“Like trying to raise the dead?” Kaede asks with a half smile.

Tenko smiles back. “Like trying to raise the dead.”

“Alright,” Kaede says. “I guess that now raises the question about what we are supposed to do with the motive.”

“That’s where Tenko isn’t sure,” she admits. “Angie-san seems very dead set on going through with it.”

“I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on her for now,” Kaede says. “Maybe,” she furrows her brow, “maybe I could try stealing the book or something. But if the motive just goes missing that might cause more problems…”

“Tenko will do her best to try and think of something, too,” she says. “Also, we should probably get back before Angie-san starts to get suspicious.”

“Right,” Kaede says.

The two head back to find only Kiibo and Yumeno standing around. “Ah,” says Kiibo. “There you are.”

“Where did Iruma-san and Angie-san go?” Kaede asks.

“Iruma-san left to go build more locks,” Kiibo answers. “Angie-san said she would need one to make sure no one interrupts the resurrection ritual.”

Kaede does her best not to grimace. “I see… and where’s Angie-san?”

“She left to start making sculptures,” Yumeno says. “We were supposed to wait here for you…”

“Yes,” says Kiibo. “While Angie-san prepares for the ritual, she tasked the rest of us to begin setup for Yumeno-san’s magic show.”

Tenko’s eyes widen. “Ah, Yumeno-san, are you really okay with doing your magic show right before the ritual?”

“Yeah,” she says. “It’s fine… I talked to Angie, and she said that I’ll do two tricks and then we’ll resurrect someone as the grand finale… It’ll kinda steal my thunder, but, Angie said that can’t be helped…”

“Tenko does not believe that,” she says. “Tenko thinks there is no way anything could upstage Yumeno-san’s magic.”

Yumeno blinks at her and begins to fidget with her hat. “Yeah.”

They walk to the school, Yumeno languidly detailing which tricks she wants to do while Tenko attempts to sort out the logistics of moving the various pieces necessary from Yumeno’s lab to the fourth floor. In the lab itself, Kaede immediately begins worriedly examining the box for the first trick Yumeno describe—namely the large saw posed above it.

“Um,” she says. “Is there a less dangerous trick you could do?”

Yumeno blinks tiredly up at her. “It’s not dangerous if you have the proper magic,” she says. “Are you questioning my skills as a mage?”

Kiibo frowns. “I do not believe that is what Akamatsu-san was trying to say. I think she is mostly worried about moving a large saw out into the open—someone else may try to use it for…”

He doesn’t need to say it, and Yumeno answers, “It’ll be fine. We can just make Iruma build a lock for the room or something, right?”

“Ah, that is an excellent idea, Yumeno-san,” Tenko says. Her gaze shifts to the large vertical box filled with swords. “Should we do the same with the room for this trick?”

“Um, probably,” Yumeno says. 

Kaede walks over and gingerly removes one of the swords. To her surprise, it contracts slightly as she moves it. “Are these fake swords?” she asks.

“No,” says Yumeno. “Most of them are real.”

Kiibo wanders over to the saw. “This appears to be real… Yumeno-san?” he says. “What is the purpose of mixing fake weapons and real weapons?”

“Because sometimes magic requires a fake weapon and sometimes it doesn’t,” she answers dully.

Kaede continues her inspection of the box, attempting to decipher which of the swords before her are real. She runs her hand over the large variety of slots in the box, noting a slight difference in width between some of them. “Yumeno-san,” she says. “Are some of the swords thicker or thinner than others? Is that how you can tell where to put the fake ones over the real ones?”

Yumeno seems to pout at her question. “No, I use magic.”

“Ah,” Kaede senses this is a lost cause. “Got it.”

“Oh!” says Kiibo, still examining the box with the saw. “I believe I have found a hidden compartment here, which means—”

“It’s magic, it’s magic, it’s magic,” Yumeno says. 

“Kiibo-san,” Tenko says. “Take one side of that and Tenko will help you lift the other.”

Still startled by Yumeno’s chanting, Kiibo manages, “A-Ah, alright, Chabashira-san.”

The two begin to carefully maneuver the large box out of the room, and Kaede says, “Are you really going to perform these tricks on us, Yumeno-san?”

She frowns. “They’re all totally safe… I’ve never had anyone get hurt during a magic show, ever. And if something like that did happen, then my shows would do the opposite of cheering everyone up.” She stares down at the ground. “They’d be totally useless then, and that means I could do less than nothing…”

“Um, Yumeno-san?” Kaede says. “Are you alright?”

“Huh?” she says. “I’m fine… just thinking about how to help everyone. That’s why I joined the student council and stuff…”

“R-Right,” Kaede says. “Well, ah, would you like to move the swords while I move the box?”

“Okay,” Yumeno says. “But there’s so many of them…”

Yumeno complains for most of the trip, and Kaede tries not to let her irritation show as they eventually make it to the fourth floor. Kaede’s arms are on fire as she places the box down outside the three rooms where Tenko and Kiibo appear to be waiting with their box as well. However, as Kaede catches her breath, she notices the two of them appear to be focused on the familiar sight of Iruma kneeling down in front of one of the doors with a screwdriver and what Kaede recognizes as a lock.

Yumeno huffs behind her and casually drops the swords in a pile on the floor. The clatter catches Tenko’s attention, and she spins on her heel to greet them. “Ah, Yumeno-san, Kaede-san,” she says. “Kiibo-san and Tenko were just waiting for your directions about which room to setup in.”

“Also,” says Kiibo. “Iruma-san finished building one of the locks we need already.”

“‘Cause I am a fucking speed demon genius,” she says. “I’ll shit out the other two we need before the day’s over, guaranteed.” 

Kiibo nods. “Also,” he says holding up a key. “Iruma-san built keys for these rooms.” He walks over to Yumeno and presents the key to her. “I believe it makes the most sense for Yumeno-san to hold on to them, as it is her show.”

She takes it from him. “Uh, okay. If I lose it, Iruma can build another one, right?”

“If you fucking lose it,” says Iruma. “I’ll build another one and shove it up your ass.”

“But then you’d have to build a third one…” Yumeno says.

Kaede raises her eyebrows. “That’s the problem you have with that?”

Tenko clears her throat. “Anyway, Yumeno-san, which room should we set these up in?”

She places a finger on her chin. “Uh, I don’t like Iruma, so let’s put them in the rooms she’s not working on right now.”

Iruma begins to squawk at her words, so Kaede quickly says, “Okay, so how about the saw in the room on the left and the sword box in the middle?”

Yumeno nods. “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

Kaede suppresses her sigh, and they begin their setup anew. 

Time passes, and evening begins to fall on them by the time they finish. Yumeno presses a hand to her stomach. “I’m so hungry,” she mumbles. “Can we go have dinner, yet? I’ll practice my tricks tomorrow.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Yumeno-san,” says Tenko. “Tenko will go inform Angie-san, and we will meet you there.”

Kaede says goodbye to Tenko and leads her group back down to the cafeteria, already packed with the non-student council members. An uncomfortable silence greets them as the others halt their conversations to stare up at them. Kaede opts to break the tension, saying, “Oh, looks like you guys already made dinner. Tenko-san and Angie-san will be down in a little while, too.”

“Ah, okay,” says Shirogane. “It’s nice to see you guys…”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “No, it’s not.”

Kaede forces a smile and takes a seat across from Shirogane. “Yeah, we’ve been pretty busy all day preparing for Yumeno-san’s magic show.”

Gonta’s eyes widen. “Yumeno-san is still doing the magic show?”

“Yup,” Yumeno says. “And everyone better come because I’m so tired…”

“That’s a nice sales pitch you’ve got there,” Hoshi says.

“Wait,” says Momota. “It’s just gonna be like fake magic tricks and shit, right?”

Yumeno puffs out her checks, and Kaede knows what’s coming so she preempts her with, “First Yumeno-san is going to do two tricks, and then,” she glances around at the others, “then Angie-san will do the resurrection ritual.”

Momota suddenly goes pale. “Whoa, whoa, wait. I thought we all agreed that ghosts and crap were bullshit, right?”

“I don’t think we’ve really agreed on anything these past few days,” Hoshi says.

“Nope!” Ouma cheers. 

Momota groans and runs a hand through his hair. “It had to be occult crap…”

“Ah, Momota-kun,” says Kiibo. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah,” says Kaede gently. “Is your foot better now?”

“Covered in about eight fucking layers of bandages, and Hoshi’s disinfectant stung like a bitch, but, yeah,” he says. 

“Aw, it’s okay, Momota-chan,” Ouma says. “You can always lean on me.”

Iruma snorts. “Hey, the shota is about the right size to be an arm rest, isn’t he?” She begins cackling to herself before yelping. “Who fucking kicked me?”

“Could’ve been anyone,” Ouma says, smiling brightly.

“Anyway,” Kaede says. “Everyone’s invited to Yumeno-san’s magic show, but I don’t think the same is true for the resurrection.”

“That is correct,” says Kiibo. “Angie-san specifically instructed Iruma-san to build a lock for the door to make sure it will go on without interruptions.” 

“Oh, but,” says Shirogane. “Can’t Ouma-kun pick locks?”

Kiibo looks down to him, and Ouma waves back. With a sigh, Kiibo says, “It will go uninterrupted by anyone who is not Ouma-kun.”

“Kind of a flaw in your plan, huh?” says Momota.

Kaede presses a hand to her forehead. “It sure seems that way…”

“Oh, hey,” says Ouma. “Akamatsu-chan, what time is the resurrection going to happen?”

She raises an eyebrow. “Are you asking just so you can show up to sabotage it?”

“Huh?” he says. “I’d never do a thing like that… I just want to be part of the student council…”

“Do you?” Yumeno asks. “Angie has a really low bar for joining…”

“Of course not!” he says. “I wouldn’t abandon my beloved Momota-chan to the ghosts.”

Momota just groans. “Can’t you pick someone else to do that crap with?”

“Hmm, no,” he says. “See, Kiiboy, is just a useless robot, and Gonta and Hoshi-chan only like each other, so that just leaves you!”

Iruma snorts. “So you only wanna bone him by default?”

Momota runs a hand over his face groaning again, and Kaede teasingly asks, “Does that make you hate it more or less?”

“Fuck if I know, man,” he answers.

And though Kaede finds Momota’s reaction amusing, she also notices Gonta’s face has turned slightly pink and a small smile’s appearance on Hoshi’s face.

Dinner continues in relative peace, even when Tenko finally shows up with Angie.

However, at the end, Angie stands to say. “Okay, everyone, here’s one of the student council rules. There will now be a curfew for all non-student council members. So make sure you go to bed right after the nighttime announcement, and don’t leave until the morning one.” A silence meets her, and she smiles, leaning forward to say, “Don’t worry! It’s just to keep everyone super safe!”

Hoshi sighs, leaning back in his chair. “I wasn’t planning to go out anyway, but I don’t think I like someone telling me when I can and can’t leave my room.”

“Ryoma,” Angie says. “Angie just said it was for the good of the group, and the student council’s purpose is to make sure everyone lives here peacefully, no matter what.”

“See, it’s that last part that worries me,” he says.

Kaede senses another fight. She says, “Okay, how about this—me and a few of the other student council members will also follow curfew in solidarity. After all,” she directs a pleading look to Yumeno, Kiibo, and Iruma, hoping for one of them to back her up. “We all want the same thing, right? There’s no reason to fight over it.”

Kaede had been counting on Tenko’s support, and the other girl says, “Tenko will also obey curfew if that helps to ease tensions. Kaede-san is right, we all want the same thing, so we should not divide ourselves over it.”

Yumeno says, “I guess I could do it, too… I’m pretty tired…”

Hoshi glances over them warily before saying. “Fine. I get your point.”

“Gonta doesn’t mind,” he says softly. “As long as it helps everyone to stay safe, Gonta will stay in his room.”

“Ah, it’s alright with me, too,” says Shirogane. “I don’t really leave my room at night, anyway.”

“And I’m fucking busted for training tonight, anyway,” Momota says. “Whatever. Guess I’ll tell Harumaki, too, but she is not going to be fucking happy.”

Ouma still pouts. “Aw, but I like lurking around alone in the dark at night…”

“Be creepier,” Momota says. 

“Oh, I can try,” he says. “I can invite some of my ghost friends to back to the dorms.”

Momota pinches the bridge of his nose. “Shut up. There are no ghosts.”

Angie claps her hands. “So it’s decided then! Okay, goodnight everyone!”

After a moment of hesitation, everyone slowly stands up and walks to the dorms. Angie and Iruma part ways with them to head to their labs, Kiibo following along behind Iruma after her not so subtly alluding to a new upgrade she built for him being finished.

The goodnights exchanged are far too terse, and Kaede lingers just long enough to exchange a few hurried words with Tenko. She whispers, “Any ideas about the motive yet?”

Tenko shakes her head. “All Tenko can think of is just taking it, even if Angie-san will likely look for someone to blame.”

Kaede sighs. “There’s no doubt that will happen, but at least it will stop the ritual, and if Angie-san can’t do it anymore, maybe she’ll calm down with the whole student council thing. I’m not sure if she’ll admit she was wrong right out, but maybe something close to it.”

“But Tenko isn’t sure when we’d even get a chance to do that,” she replies.

Kaede’s about to respond when she abruptly shuts her mouth as Ouma wanders past. Very quietly, so only she can hear, he mumbles, “Whisper, whisper, whisper. I wonder what it’s like keeping so many secrets…”

He winks at her and keeps walking to his room without slowing his steps. Kaede stares after him and murmurs, “We’ll also have to figure out what to do about him one of these days.”

Tenko frowns as she whispers, “Kaede-san, do you think Ouma-san is a bad person? He likes to say awful things, but,” she shifts from foot to foot, “Tenko isn’t sure.”

“What are you not sure about?” Kaede says. 

“Tenko doesn’t know,” she says. “It’s hard to explain. But, um, goodnight, Kaede-san. You should get some rest after everything that happened today.”

“Yeah,” she sighs. “Goodnight.”

With that she walks to her room and closes the door with a soft click before walking over to her bed to grab a pillow to scream into.

-

Kaede lies awake, staring at her ceiling and waiting for the morning announcement for far too long. As soon as the screen in her room clicks on, she snaps up Saihara’s hat from bedside table, places it on her head, and bursts out of her door.

The others seem to have been nearly as stir-crazy as her, and for once, arrival at breakfast is not a slow trickle but a parade. Kaede leads the group, complete with almost everyone—even Maki trailing at the back—behind her up to the cafeteria. 

Kiibo’s already sitting there, bright eyed as ever, with an equally perky Angie on one side, and a half asleep Iruma on the other. Angie raises her arms over her head in greeting. “Good morning, everyone! God says today is going to be a wonderful day!” 

Yumeno says, “Oh, well if God says it, then it must be true,” as she takes a seat.

Everyone else files in, and Kaede once again finds herself firmly surrounded by student council members. Breakfast proceeds uninterrupted, with a quick reprimand from Angie against Ouma for breaking curfew that he nonchalantly brushes off, and an odd moment of Hoshi walking up to Iruma to ask if he could borrow something from her lab. Still clearly exhausted from whatever she had been up to the night before, she waves her hand and gives him a vaguely positive answer that seems to satisfy him.

Kaede watches him return to his place next to Gonta, who none too subtly whispers, “Did she say yes?” to which Hoshi nods.

She’s halfway to making up her mind to question them, when Monokuma appears, his three cubs in a line behind him.

“Looks like everyone’s together!” he says. “What wonderful timing—but then again, being a bear means I am naturally a master at these things.”

Gonta blinks. “Do… do bears have a good internal clock?”

“Beats me,” says Monokuma. “But anyway, I have a very special present from me to you that I’ll deliver with a rhyme.”

Momota groans. “Oh, don’t even—”

“Everyone’s up, early and bright, so it’s time,” he gestures dramatically to the Monokubs, “for a brand new Flashback Light!”

Angie hops up to meet Monodam already moving towards her. “Ooh, can Angie see that really quickly?” She takes it, turns it over in her hands a few times, and throws it to the ground before stomping her foot on it. 

Shirogane gasps, “Th-The Flashback Light!”

“Hey!” shouts Momota. “What the fuck was that for?”

Monokuma seems to be sweating. “Oh my, oh my. Stomping all over your memories like they’re nothing! Even this bear is scared. But, the key when running from something scary isn’t to be the fastest, just not the slowest! Bye, kids!” 

With that he vanishes, leaving the Monokubs to stare dazedly at each other for a moment. Monodam’s the first to disappear, abandoning the other two without a word. They begin to panic, but their banter gets lost over the noise of Angie saying, “There we go!”

Hoshi stares at the broken machine crushed under her foot. “That was… that was one of our only connections to the outside world.”

“Do you know you just destroyed one of our only chances to learn about the hunt or our supposed funeral?” Maki says darkly. 

The others keep staring in shock, and Angie says, “Guys, the outside world doesn’t matter. The outside is the outside and the inside is the inside—what’s happening or what happened out there don’t concern us anymore.”

“You can’t decide that for everyone,” Hoshi says, practically shaking in anger. “No one wants to waste away in this school except for you.”

“Ryoma—”

Hoshi stands. “No—I’m done with listening to you. You want to trap us in here—you’re practically worse than Monokuma.”

He moves to the door, and Gonta follows after him, “Hoshi-kun! Wait! Gonta knows you want to get out with everyone, but—” the rest of his words fade past hearing as the doors close and the sound of steps pitter patter down the outside hall.

Angie’s smile doesn’t falter, but no one would dare mistake her expression as anything but furious. She grinds the Flashback Light against the ground with her heel and turns back to the group. With her normal cheer, she says, “God says everyone in the student council needs to come with Angie to her lab to help her set up for the ritual.”

“Is everything finally ready?” Yumeno asks. “I still need to rehearse…”

“That’s okay,” Angie says. “God says that we should do it tomorrow, so we can make extra sure that everything’s ready to go. Now, everyone follow Angie!”

She begins to walk out of the room, and, after exchanging nervous looks with Tenko, Kaede stands to lead the student council members after her. 

-

Angie takes a minute to unlock her lab, merrily talking about how she’s started locking it after finding Ouma wandering around the fourth floor last night, before she pushes the door open.

They follow her inside, and Kaede stops dead in her tracks as she stands completely agape at the sight before her. She had remembered Angie mentioning building sculptures from the day before, but the sight of the four near perfectly made full body statues of their deceased classmates more than caught her off guard. 

Angie walks between easily. “These need to be moved to the room Himiko’s not using so we can do the ritual there.” She picks up the statue of Saihara as if it weighed almost nothing. “They’re pretty light, but there’s only one Angie and four of them!”

Iruma immediately walks over to the statue of Tojo to begin inspecting it. “These are fucking creepy,” she says. “Also, uh, how accurate are they?” She twists a piece of hair between her fingers. “J-Just so we’re all on the same page.”

Tenko moves to lift Tojo’s statue. “Iruma-san, why don’t you move a different one? Or just watch.”

Iruma squeaks, “I-I wasn’t going to do anything weird!” as Kiibo moves to pick up the statue of Shinguji. Iruma continues to make strange excuses as Kaede collects herself enough to approach the statue of Amami. With a deep breath she easily lifts it, just as Angie said she could. 

The others begin moving out of the room, Angie leading them, and Kaede makes to move after them when she spies the small black book for the ritual lying on one of the unused wax cylinders. She glances around to see Tenko staring at it as well, with a quick nod of understanding between them, Tenko immediately moves to begin distracting Iruma, straggling behind the others. 

“Iruma-san,” she says. “Tenko has some questions for you about your inventions…”

She trails off into an overly elaborate question Kaede can tell she’s making up as she goes along, but Iruma seems intrigued enough to focus her attention on Tenko’s ramblings. Kaede takes the moment to quietly set Amami’s statue back down as a wall between her and the others before silently leaning down to grab the book. She shuffles it into her backpack, keeping her eyes on Iruma and Tenko still stalling by the door the whole time. 

She gives Tenko a quick nod as she swings her backpack back over her shoulders and grabs Amami’s statue again.

Tenko cuts herself off with a curt, “Never mind—Tenko doesn’t think she’d understand anyway,” and hurries to move after the others.

Iruma calls out, “Then what was the fucking point!?” as she chases after her, Kaede attempting to follow behind as nonchalantly as she can.

The walk down to the three rooms is short, and Yumeno walks ahead of them to unlock the door to the remaining empty room. It opens with a soft click, and Angie moves inside to place the Saihara statue in one of the corners before instructing the others to do the same. They do so as Angie walks over to Yumeno, saying, “Himiko, Angie needs the key to this room. God says you should keep the ones for the other rooms so you can rehearse.”

“Okay,” Yumeno says dully, handing her the shining key. “Is there anything else I need to do?”

“Nope!” says Angie. “God says you just need to work super hard on your magic tricks.”

Yumeno frowns. “That’s the only thing I need to do?”

“Mhmm!” she says. “Angie wishes you lots of luck!”

Yumeno mumbles, “Okay,” again and shuffles out of the room.

Tenko bites her lip, following her with her eyes. “Tenko will go help Yumeno-san.”

“I’ll help, too,” says Kaede. “Just let us know if there’s anything else you need for the ritual, Angie-san.”

“Angie will!” she calls out as they make their exit, leaving Angie alone with the statues.

Kiibo and Iruma part ways with them when Iruma announces her intentions to begin the search for her missing drone and Kiibo volunteers to help. Kaede and Tenko wave goodbye to them, but Yumeno focuses only on the setup for her first trick—the box with the saw.

She practices experimentally moving the saw up and down and cautiously spinning the blade with her hands. She doesn’t say a word to Tenko or Kaede as she single-mindedly goes about her inspection. After a moment of hesitation, Tenko says, “Have you done this trick before, Yumeno-san?”

“Yeah,” she says. “I need an assistant and stuff, though.”

“Oh, well, Tenko would be happy to help,” she volunteers.

Yumeno finally looks up at her for a moment. She seems to weigh something in her mind. Then, “Okay.”

She allows Tenko and Kaede to see the set up of the box details how an assistant would have to position themselves, all while still claiming the process is done through magic. “And then I lower the saw, but you’re okay and stuff because I used my magic to protect you.”

Tenko nods her head. “Understood. Yumeno-san’s magic is very impressive.”

She juts out her lower lip. “I guess…” she pauses, then, “Everyone likes magic shows, right? It makes people happy seeing a mage do… mage stuff.”

“It does,” says Tenko. “Um, Yumeno-san, also if you don’t mind Tenko saying, Tenko doesn’t think you need to worry about being useful.”

Yumeno blinks up at her. “Huh?”

“Ah,” Tenko’s face flushes. “Tenko just wants Yumeno-san to know that she’s always helpful. Even if you’re not strong like Gonta-san or good at making things like Iruma-san, you still matter, and everyone is happy to have you around. Tenko is happy to have you around—you can do things to try to be helpful if you want to, but everyone will still value you even if you don’t. And Tenko thinks the fact that Yumeno-san wants to try so hard to help cheer everyone up with her talent shows how big a heart she has.”

Yumeno looks down at the floor. A moment of silence passes, and Tenko’s about to apologize when Yumeno says, “‘m not good at a lot of stuff. Most things are too hard and take too much effort… but everything’s really bad right now so everyone needs to do stuff, and I’m dead weight…”

“Yumeno-san—”

“Training to be stronger or trying to be smarter is too exhausting,” she says. “Angie said believing in her God would help, but all that’s done is make everybody fight, so I’m back to just using magic… I dunno if it’ll work, but it’s all I got…”

Tenko smiles gently. “Tenko thinks that is very admirable of you, Yumeno-san.”

“Yeah, well,” she says, and Kaede catches the slightest blush on her face. “I’m not good at fighting or trials, but I am a pretty great mage.”

“You are,” says Tenko. “Yumeno-san, do you want Tenko to be your assistant for the next trick? The one with the swords?”

“Okay,” she says, and Kaede doesn’t miss the way the two walk slightly closer together when they leave the room.

Yumeno goes over the finer points of the box, and after lining Tenko up with it mentions that she’s just about the right height for it. “The real swords,” she says. “Are thicker than the fake ones and can only go through some of the holes, which angle them in positions where it won’t actually hit you. But you’ll still have a bunch of fake ones poking you, which can get kind of annoying…”

“Tenko can handle that,” she says. “As long as Yumeno-san uses her magic, Tenko knows she has nothing to worry about.”

Yumeno nods. “Right, uh,” she places a finger on her lower lip. “Did I explain the saw one very well? I can’t remember…”

“Tenko will be happy to listen to Yumeno-san’s explanation again,” she says.

“Also,” Kaede speaks up. “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to run through both of them just to make sure everything’s safe.”

“Oh, right,” says Yumeno.

Kaede watches warily as Tenko stands in the box, and Yumeno gingerly positions the swords through, weighing each one deliberately in her hands before sliding them in. The day turns to night, and after a few test trials, Angie ducks into their room to clap for the fact that Tenko remains unskewered before dashing back out. Her approval seems to satisfy Yumeno enough to direct them back to the first room to go over the saw box again.

Though already having explained it once, Yumeno goes over the various compartments in greater detail, running through the set up once without anyone inside before directing Tenko to try it. Despite knowing the trick behind it, Kaede holds her breath for the entire performance and silently admits to herself that there is something inherently exciting about magic tricks. 

Tenko again emerges unharmed, and Kaede claps as Yumeno bows. The movement, however, causes something shiny from her pocket to slip out and tumble through the loose floorboards. Yumeno’s eyes widen and she drops to her hands and knees, peering through the gaps in the floor. Tenko immediately gets down on the floor beside her, asking, “Was that one of the keys?”

Yumeno shoves her hand into her pocket to check. With a frown she says, “Yeah—one of ‘em.” She moves back to the floor and attempts to slide her fingers through the gaps.

“Um,” says Kaede. “Yumeno-san, I don’t think your arm’s thin enough.”

“But I need to get it back,” she pouts.

Gently, Tenko says, “Ah, Yumeno-san, Tenko would like to help, but it is starting to get late. Perhaps we should go to bed and try to retrieve it in the morning.”

Yumeno sits up. “But don’t I need to lock the room to make sure nobody uses the saw for bad things?”

“Well, yes,” says Kaede. “But with Angie-san’s curfew, I don’t know if we’ll need to worry about that.”

Yumeno seems to consider her words but looks back down at the key glittering through the floorboards with determined eyes. “I’ll be there later. I wanna try a few more spells first to get it out.”

Kaede is about to protest, but Tenko says, “Okay, Yumeno-san. Tenko knows you can do it.”

“Yeah,” she says. “I just need to recharge my MP a little first.”

Tenko nods. “Of course, goodnight, Yumeno-san. We will come by early tomorrow morning to help with any last minute preparations.”

“Okay,” she says back, and Tenko escorts Kaede out of the room, the door swinging shut silently behind them. “Night.”

They walk down the hall in quiet until safely out of earshot, and Kaede says, “Do you think she’ll get it back?”

“Tenko isn’t sure, but it will be fine either way,” she says. “Mostly, Tenko knows that Yumeno-san needs to feel independent to get her confidence up. Telling her she should stop trying would not be helpful.”

“That makes sense,” says Kaede. “Also, what do you think I should do with the book now?”

Tenko frowns. “Tenko… doesn’t know, but at least Angie-san hasn’t seemed to notice it’s missing yet since she didn’t ask us.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll just have to thank our luck for that,” she says. “I hope Angie-san’s not too angry when she finds out it’s gone. Going off of what happened this morning, she’ll probably blame Hoshi-kun, and then poor Gonta-kun will probably get in the middle of it.”

“Right,” Tenko says. “But that can’t really be helped… Tenko supposes that the important thing is that now the ritual can’t happen, whatever it was.”

“I guess,” Kaede says shaking her head. “It’s just so hard to know if you’re making the right call sometimes, you know? There have been so many times where I’m so sure I’m on the right track with something, and then, well, not great things happen.”

Tenko hums in agreement. “Tenko thinks that’s what being a leader is. We just have to do the best we can with the information we have and live as positively as we can.”

Kaede smiles. “That’s a nice way to think about things—all we can do is keep living positively, and get an early start tomorrow since you promised Yumeno-san.”

Tenko smiles back, and they say their goodnights, unaware of so many things happening around them at that moment.

-

Kaede wakes up before the morning announcement to the sound of Tenko ringing her doorbell. She gets dressed promptly, and the two exchange good mornings before heading along the garden path to the school. 

The morning announcement sounds as they climb the steps up to the second floor, signaling Angie’s imposed curfew’s end for the others. Kaede’s about to comment on that when they spy Yumeno coming down the staircase in front of them.

Tenko says, “Yumeno-san? Did you already finish—” 

She stops abruptly as Yumeno dashes over with more speed than Kaede’s ever seen her move at to wrap her arms around Tenko’s waist. “Ah,” Tenko’s face flushes bright red. “Yumeno-san?”

Yumeno seems to hug her tighter for a moment before letting go. She steps back from them and adjusts her hat. “Was that weird?”

“N-No!” Tenko stutters, still blushing wildly. “Just unexpected.”

“Hmm,” Yumeno hums. “Okay. Also, here’s the keys to the magic rooms.” Tenko looks down confused as she places the two keys in her hands. “That’s everything… I’ll be going then.”

She moves past them, taking the stairs two at a time. Tenko calls, “Yumeno-san!?” after her but she doesn’t stop in her strangely hurried movements. 

“That was odd,” Kaede says. “Do you think everything’s alright with her?”

“Tenko doesn’t know,” she mumbles. 

“Maybe she just has stage fright?” Kaede says.

“Maybe,” Tenko says. “Let’s check the set up for the magic show. Maybe Yumeno-san needs help with something and is too embarrassed.”

Kaede nods, and they continue on their way up to the fourth floor, slightly more confused than they were.

Outside the three rooms, another familiar face greets them as Ouma rocks back and forth on his heels with his hands behind his back, whistling innocently. 

Tenko frowns at him. “Ouma-san? What are you doing up here?”

“Oh, just trying to get a preview of Yumeno-chan’s show,” he says skipping over to them, hands still folded behind him. “What are you doing here?”

Kaede rolls her eyes. “We told Yumeno-san we’d help her set up this morning.”

“Hmm, did you?” he says. “That’s interesting…”

“If you say so,” she says tiredly. “Ouma-kun, can you move out of the way?”

“Oh, sure,” Ouma says. “I just want to show Akamatsu-chan one thing. It’s a magic trick I’ve been trying, but I’m not having any luck…”

Tenko says, “Did you want Yumeno-san to help you with it?”

“Yeah,” he says. “But she told me she was too busy. So, Akamatsu-chan, let me see your hands.”

She regards him warily. “What are you going to do?”

He puffs his cheeks out. “I just told you, I’m going to do a magic trick. C’mon, we don’t have all day!”

“Will you leave us alone if I do?” Kaede asks.

“As alone as I can!” Ouma says.

“Fine.”

With that she moves her hands out in front of her and catches sight of something metal and shiny he had been hiding behind his back a second too late. 

Tenko spies it, too, and shouts, “Kaede-san!” as Kaede attempts to jerk back and out of his reach. She feels cold metal bite against her wrist and the even colder revelation of her current predicament prickle down her spine.

Ouma raises his hand in the air, which causes Kaede’s now handcuffed hand to rise with him. “Ta-da!” 

Kaede pulls back, pulling Ouma with her, and attempts to yank her hand out. “What!? Why—why!? Get it off!”

He pouts. “You don’t like my trick, Akamastu-chan?”

“This is not a magic trick!” she shouts. 

“But it is a trick,” he answers grinning deviously. 

Tenko says. “Ouma-san, give us the key now.”

“I would, but I don’t have it,” he says. “And also these locks are too hard too pick. I even practiced on the other ones in Hoshi-chan’s lab, and I couldn’t open any of them.”

“That is absolutely a lie,” says Kaede. “Get this off of me.”

“Off of us,” he corrects.

“Ouma-kun, I swear,” she says. “This is not funny.”

“I didn’t do it to be funny,” Ouma says. “I did it to be safe.”

“How does that make any sense?” 

He places a finger from his free hand against his lips. “It’s a mystery.”

Tenko looks them over, and says, “Maybe we can find Iruma-san and ask her to make a key.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Ouma says.

“Tenko was not talking to you,” she says sharply. 

“Anyway!” says Ouma. “Didn’t you say you wanted to help setup Yumeno-san’s magic show?”

“Which we’ll do,” Kaede says. “After you get this off of me.”

“Off of us.”

“Tenko is going to use you as a punching bag after this,” she says darkly.

He salutes her. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“You are actually the worst,” Kaede says. “What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong,” Ouma says. “Is that I’m still having trouble with my magic tricks.”

Tenko turns her expression of disgust from him to a more sympathetic one as she addresses Kaede. “Should we still see if there’s anything wrong with Yumeno-san’s magic show? Tenko would understand if you didn’t want to.”

Kaede thinks for a moment and sighs. “No, it’s fine. Checking out a few things shouldn’t take long anyway.”

“Yay!” says Ouma.

Tenko curls her lip up at him. “Tenko can check one room, and you and… Ouma-san can check the other to speed things up.”

“Good idea,” says Kaede. “The faster this is over the better.”

Tenko hands her one of the keys, “Tenko… _thinks_ this is for the room with the saw. So, Tenko will check the room with the swords.”

Kaede takes it from her, having to snatch it fast to avoid Ouma’s hands from grabbing it. She glares down at him, and he beams back up at her.

Tenko walks past them to her door as Kaede unlocks the one closest to them. 

She and Ouma step inside the candle lit room, and Kaede immediately notices that the saw is no longer poised above the box. She’s about to comment on it when she hears Tenko’s scream coming through the wall.

She whips her head towards the noise, and a familiar chime starts to play. “A body has been disco—” and then cuts off abruptly, dying out with a strange distorted noise.

Everything seems to go oddly quiet, and Kaede rushes back out the door, dragging Ouma along behind her. She pushes it open and discovers that the dim lights previously lighting the hall have been shut off completely. 

The door behind them closes, and Kaede finds herself in complete darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everybody loves a cliffhanger, right? Also Kiiruma is officially tagged now, since, well, I realized there's quite a lot of it, haha.


	14. The Third Body Has Been Discovered

For a single moment, everything is absolutely still and absolutely dark. Kaede blinks her eyes, but in the hallway, cutoff from any windows, only darkness greets. 

The first touches of panic begin to come over her when she feels the handcuffs bite into her wrist as Ouma moves around behind her. She’s about to question him when the door to the middle room suddenly swings open, illuminating a small patch of light around the entrance from the candles inside. Tenko stands framed in the darkness a far too familiar look of horror on her face. A look Kaede remembers seeing when she had told her she found blood in the gym so long ago.

“Kaede-san!” she says. “Kaede-san, there’s—” She looks up suddenly seeming to notice the darkness all at once. “What—what happened to the lights?”

Kaede hurries over to her, pulling Ouma along behind easily enough. “I don’t know. But, Tenko-san,” she says. “The body announcement started to play. Is someone…?”

The surprise vanishes from Tenko’s face, replaced by a grim expression. “Yes. It’s,” she takes a deep breath, her hands curling into fists. “Kaede-san… Gonta-san is dead.”

Kaede feels her throat constrict, and her chest tightens as if someone was physically crushing her heart in their fist. “How did…” she says. “How could anyone…” She squeezes her eyes shut as she attempts to gather herself. “Let me see him. We need to investigate.”

“Oh?” says Ouma. “But that’s going to be really hard to do with no lights…”

“There are candles in the room,” Kaede says. “And…” she takes another breath, “and I want to see the body before we get…” Hoshi flashes through her mind, “everyone else.”

Tenko nods and moves back into the room, holding the door open for Kaede and Ouma to pass through as well. Any mental preparations Kaede had made to steel herself evaporate at the sight of the room, transformed in such a twisted manner from the night before. 

The four statues Angie had created the day before now stand in each dark corner, a sword thrust through the stomachs of all but the one of Saihara. The sight of that alone would be enough to stop her dead in her tracks, but in the center, Kaede sees poor Gonta’s body leaning almost upright against the walls of the sword box, the door to it limply hanging open, help ajar by his massive shoulder, his frame too large to properly fit in the death trap. 

With her hands held over her mouth, Kaede approaches slowly, Ouma moving alongside her silently. Closer up, she sees dried blood darkening his once neat jacket and dress shirt. Her eyes flicker over his body, and still staring at the gory image before her she says, “Was… was he stabbed by one of Yumeno-san’s swords?”

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko doesn’t know,” she gestures down to a pile of swords, fake and real alike, near the box. “It seems possible, but Tenko doesn’t want to believe that could happen. Yumeno-san said all her tricks were completely safe… Tenko even stood… Tenko even…” she shakes her head again, “How could this have happened?”

Kaede presses her hands to her face, finally tearing her eyes away from Gonta’s body. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Easy,” says Ouma. “Someone wanted to escape, and Gonta was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

Kaede jerks her head to look at him, and he coolly stares up at her. “How can you just say something like—”

“Am I wrong?” he asks. 

Her mouth forms a thin, tight line as she continues to glare at him. After a moment she turns to Tenko. “We should try and find the others.”

Tenko nods. “Right.”

“Oh?” says Ouma. “But didn’t all the lights turn off? Ooh, ooh! Does Chabashira-chan have night vision?”

Kaede and Tenko exchange a look before Kaede sighs. “As much as I hate to say it, he has a point. The hallway outside is pitch black—I don’t know if I even could have found my way to this room if you hadn’t opened the door.”

“ _And_ ,” says Ouma. “We don’t know how much of the school’s power is off! What if everything is super dark and spooky now?”

Kaede looks down at him. “That’s actually… wait,” she turns to Tenko. “Is it just the lights that turned off? The announcement got weirdly cut off, too.”

Tenko frowns and moves to grab something out of her pocket. She pauses in confusion for a moment before bringing out her monopad in one hand and a key in the other. Kaede’s stares down at it curiously while Tenko seems absolutely baffled by its presence. “Tenko…” she says. “Was going to check to see if the Monokuma File was on her monopad, but… she doesn’t remember carrying around another key.”

“Ooh, mystery key,” says Ouma. “But is the Monokuma File there yet? I want to see! I want to see!”

Tenko glares at him, but she shuffles the strange key back into her pocket and flicks her monopad on. Its screen glows, basking them in light, but instead of the usual opening screen, it merely reads ‘OFFLINE.’ Tenko attempts to switch to a different screen, but the device refuses to respond. “‘Offline?’” she echoes. 

Kaede quickly moves to check hers, awkwardly shrugging her backpack off of one shoulder. “Ouma-kun, check yours, too.”

He does so with little complaint, and after a moment of shuffling things around, Kaede grabs her own to turn it on as well. Hers and Ouma’s flick to life, displaying the same ‘OFFLINE’ screen as Tenko’s. And there, standing in the dim candle light, Kaede realizes something. “Guys, I think Ouma-kun was right. Whatever happened to the lights is a lot bigger than we assumed it was. Whatever shut off the lights probably also cut off the body announcement and took the monopads offline.”

Tenko looks absolutely baffled, still swiping at the screen on her monopad. “How is that possible? Was the school struck by lightening or something?”

“That is a good question,” Ouma says, and he sends a far too meaningful look to Kaede. “What could take out all the power in the school?”

Her eyes flicker over to him grinning up at her and then back to her monopad, quickly checking the time. “It’s… almost eight. The power went out about… fifteen or twenty ago, right?”

Tenko nods. “Tenko believes that is true. Actually,” she finally looks up. “Tenko is a bit worried about how long we’ll have to investigate. The announcement did not finish playing, which means… what?”

“I don’t know,” Kaede says.

Ouma says, “Well, why don’t we ask? Hey, Monokuma!” 

They wait a moment but nothing happens. Kaede calls, “Monokuma, we have to ask you something about the school rules!”

Monokuma does not appear. 

Tenko shifts on the spot. “He does not always appear immediately… but…”

“There’s a chance Monokuma was taken offline, too,” Kaede says. “I don’t—what does that mean?”

“It means,” Ouma says. “The power going out wasn’t the mastermind’s doing. Which means,” his smile turns dark. “Someone else hit the lights.”

Something about his words makes Kaede uneasy, and she snaps, “We can’t assume that yet.”

Tenko also seems on edge. “Tenko is starting to get worried about the others, especially Yumeno-san.” She holds a hand over her heart. “She was acting strangely when we saw her this morning…”

Kaede nods in agreement. “Right, and we still need to find the others anyway—they’re probably as confused as we are. Even if they’re not working, we can still use our monopads as light sources, so walking around in the dark won’t be… an even bigger problem.”

“We should split up to find everyone quickly,” Tenko says. 

Ouma says, “Ooh, splitting up in the dark when there’s a killer lurking around—that sounds like fun!” He bounces up and down. “Me and Akamatsu-chan will check the school for everybody!”

Tenko curls up her lip at him, but says, “Tenko… does not mind searching outside and the dorms—Yumeno-san may have returned to her room to take a nap, after all.”

“And seeing if the power’s out at the dorms would help us get a better picture of our situation,” says Kaede. 

“I don’t think Chabashira-chan cares about that,” Ouma says.

“Anyway,” says Kaede, pointedly ignoring him. “Should we…” she sends a hesitant glance to Gonta’s body, “tell everyone to meet here?”

Tenko grips her monopad a little tighter. “We should tell them what happened. Keeping them in the dark about Gonta-san… is just too cruel, but maybe a different meeting spot would be better.”

“Maybe the cafeteria?” Kaede suggests. “There might be a portable stove or more candles or something we could use as a better light source, too.”

“And it is always an excellent place to talk about murder,” Ouma says.

Tenko ignores him. “Tenko will tell everyone to meet in the cafeteria then. Ugh,” she shakes her head, a near exhausted look passing over her face. “Tenko would… really like to stop discovering her friends’ bodies…”

Kaede gives her a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, me too.”

-

They split up, Tenko quickly moving ahead of Kaede and Ouma after waving the former goodbye. Kaede keeps moving through the dark hallway and waits until she hears the sounds of Tenko’s footsteps taking the stairs two at a time fade into the distance. Then, she says, “Ouma-kun, did you know the blackout was going to happen?”

He hums, holding the glowing monopad under his face to cause shadows to leap dramatically over his pale face. “Of course—I know everything, Akamatsu-chan.”

She rolls her eyes. “Tell me the truth.”

“You don’t like yes as the truth, but what about no?” Ouma asks. “So nope—I’m as in the dark about the power as you are!”

Kaede feels her patience draining rapidly. “A straight answer, please.”

He pouts. “But I just gave you two straight answers, and you didn’t like either one.”

“Ouma-kun,” she says. “This is really not the time for your games. Also,” she jerks her hand suddenly, causing Ouma to stumble slightly. “Why on earth did you do this?”

His carefree expression changes to something dark, the shadows clinging to his face doing nothing to help. “I already told you—I did it to be safe.”

“What does that even mean?” Kaede asks. 

“It means I don’t trust you,” Ouma says flatly. “Now isn’t that a nice straight answer.”

They walk through the pitch blackness stretching out ahead in angry silence before finally making it to the stairs leading down from the fourth floor. Kaede pauses. With her irritation with Ouma at an all time high, she says, “Wait—I need to put my monopad away so at least one of us can hold onto the railing.”

Ouma remains silent as she shuffles her backpack around, slipping her monopad back inside. She snaps it shut and he finally says, “So does that mean I’m in charge of our light source now?”

“I guess,” she answers, straightening her backpack. “Just hold it straight, at least while we’re walking down stairs, alright?”

“Got it, boss,” he says. 

She sighs, but Ouma does as he’s told as they move at a crawl down the stairs, Kaede near desperate to prevent either of them from tripping and taking the other down with them. Ouma doesn’t seem nearly as bothered and practically skips from step to step, the light from his monopad bouncing with each step. 

It takes entirely too long, and Kaede breathes out a sigh of relief when they reach the third floor. At the foot of the stairs, Kaede places one hand over her heart while Ouma examines his monopad commenting, “Sure is nice the clock still works even when everything else is broken. That way we’ll know how much time we have.”

She looks over to him, furrowing her brow. “Time until what?”

Ouma smiles. “C’mon, Akamatsu-chan, I can’t give you all the answers. Besides, it’d be just silly for me to tell someone like you all the answers.” 

“You don’t like me,” Kaede says. “I get it.”

“No, you don’t,” he answers. “But that’s fine. Also,” he points at her with his handcuffed hand, “If I were you, I wouldn’t try to kill me now—it’d be too obvious, and that wouldn’t be entertaining for anyone, and you can’t have that.”

Kaede just stares at him in pure shock for a moment. “Wha-What on earth are you talking about!?” she says, voice rising in volume out of sheer surprise. “I-I’m not—I would _never_ kill anyone!” 

And though she’s all too aware of the blatant falseness in her words, in her reeling state, they ring true within the tight confines of the hallway.

Ouma stops walking. He stares up at her blank faced. His normally childish voice turns harsh, and he practically hisses, “Don’t lie to me.”

He moves forward against, sharply jerking her forward with him, the metal of the cuffs biting into her wrist. 

Kaede finds her pace in time with his and shifts her tone to match the cruelty of his. “I didn’t. I’ve made enough mistakes already.”

Ouma doesn’t reply, and they reach the stairs down to the second floor in an even worse place than when they descended the first steps at a snail’s pace. No words pass between them this time, and Kaede feels along the wall to keep them steady while the earlier cheer in Ouma’s footsteps disappears completely. 

On the second floor, two similar blue glows stand like beacons in the darkness, and Kaede makes out Shirogane’s face illuminated over her monopad before the other girl calls out, “Ah, who’s there?”

“It’s me,” says Kaede. “And Ouma-kun.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Shirogane says, her light bouncing over to them with each step. “I-I heard the body announcement begin to play, and I started to get really worried.”

The second, closer to the ground light move slower, but with an aching sense of dread, Kaede realizes its Hoshi. Her stomach twists into knots when he says, “Think Chabashira came speeding past up earlier, so she’s accounted for, too, then. Haven’t seen anyone else yet.”

Shirogane nods hurriedly. “That’s right—and moving around in the dark like this is plainly terrifying, so I’m just happy I was able to find Hoshi-kun.”

Kaede absently hears her words move around, but her focus remains on Hoshi and she’s possibly supposed to tell him what she discovered. “Y-Yeah,” she says. “Ah, um, what are you guys doing up here anyway?”

Hoshi answers first. “I was supposed to meet Gokuhara to talk about something in his lab—he hasn’t showed yet though.”

Kaede flinches at his reply, but it goes unnoticed as Shirogane begins rattling off her answer. “I was actually going to try and do some laundry in Tojo-san’s lab, but when the lights turned off, I screamed, and Hoshi-kun found me.”

“I… I see,” Kaede says. She takes a deep breath and is endlessly thankful that Ouma has decided to keep his mouth shut during this entire exchange. “Hoshi-kun, there’s something I need to tell you. The body announcement started to play because… we…” she takes another breath, “We found Gonta-kun’s body on the fourth floor.”

Hoshi doesn’t react to her words immediately, simply freezing in place.

Kaede says, “I am so sorry.”

Shirogane gasps and presses a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no,” she says. “Oh, no. H-How—?” 

“I don’t know,” Kaede says. “I investigated a little, but with the power going out—”

“Where is he?” Hoshi asks, voice near emotionless. 

“Fourth floor, middle of the three rooms,” Ouma answers immediately. “It’s locked, but Chabashira-chan has the key.”

Hoshi nods. “I’m going there.”

He already begins to move past them, and Kaede calls out, “But, Hoshi-kun, the door’s locked!”

“I’ll break it down,” he answers in the same dead voice. He rounds the corner away from them, and the light surrounding him disappears completely. 

Kaede stares after him, half debating following him when she hears Shirogane say, “Gonta-kun… how could anyone kill someone like him? Did one of us really…?”

“Of course,” says Ouma. “Otherwise it wouldn’t be much of a game we’re playing, now would it?”

“Th-That’s awful!” Shirogane says. “You’re awful! You’re…” she trails off, staring at the two of them curiously. “Are you two handcuffed together?”

Kaede feels a sudden flash of embarrassment. “Uh, yes.”

“O-Oh,” she says. “Um, why?”

“It was not my choice,” Kaede says flatly.

“It was a matter of fate,” Ouma says. 

“It was not,” Kaede says.

Shirogane looks between them confusedly. “Um, well, that aside, I suppose I should try to do something useful, too.”

Kaede nods. “Yeah. Right now I’m just trying to find everyone… and tell them the news. I figured we could meet in the cafeteria instead of… at Gonta-kun’s body, but Hoshi-kun…”

“I think we should let Hoshi-kun do what he wants right now,” Shirogane says. “Ugh, this is all so horrible.”

“Leaving a suspect alone with the body to destroy evidence is horrible,” Ouma says, puffing his cheeks out. “Totally ruins the game.”

Shirogane stares at him in horror. “Wha-What? There’s no way Hoshi-kun is a suspect! He would never hurt Gonta-kun!”

“That’s right,” Kaede says. “And also, Shirogane-san, you should probably ignore Ouma-kun. He seems determined to be extra awful today.”

Ouma grins up at her, and Shirogane sends him a wary look. “That still doesn’t sound very good, but,” she turns back to Kaede. “I’ll try and go tell Hoshi-kun about meeting in the cafeteria, and then I’ll be right there.”

Kaede nods at her, and Shirogane waves them goodbye before shuffling off into the dark. 

Alone again, Kaede sighs, and glances down to see Ouma checking the time on his monopad again. She looks over his shoulder. “Are you going to tell me when you keep looking at that?”

“Nope!” he says. “But I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Now, c’mon—we need to go see everyone else!”

Ouma begins to tug her along down the halls, finding each one ahead of them eerily empty and even more eerily silent. Kaede doesn’t actively recall an abundance of ambient noises humming around the school, but something about the oppressive darkness drowns out nearly everything besides her own clicking footsteps. Ouma doesn’t seem disturbed, and returns to his previous jocular skipping, though he appears to have no intention of making further conversation with her. 

They circle the second floor, and Kaede makes a point to check the cafeteria to see if Tenko managed to direct anyone there. Ouma casts the light of his monopad over the empty room just in case anyone opted to sit in the dark, and Kaede sighs. Back in the hallway again, Kaede almost absently glances out one of the windows, and it takes her a moment to recognize how strange the sight before her is.

“Wait,” she says, coming to a standstill. “Why is it also dark outside?”

Ouma stands on his toes to peek out the window as well and into the pitch blackness below. “Hmm,” he says. “Now that is strange.”

The confusion rings heavy in her mind. “B-But it was sunny outside this morning,” Kaede says. “And it’s _still_ morning. And even when it’s night, it’s usually bright enough to still make your way around…” she shakes her head. “What on earth is happening?”

Ouma is silent for a moment, staring hard at the strange night sky. Then he suggests almost conversationally, “Maybe the sky turned off.” 

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede snaps. “If you’re not going to give me a real answer, could you just be quiet?”

“That was a real answer,” he says, eyes fixed on the window. “But,” he turns back to her with a dark smile. “I’ll be quiet if you don’t want to hear it.”

Kaede clenches her jaw and pulls him along, jerking him a touch too roughly on her first steps away from the window.

On the first floor, Kaede stops dead in her tracks as a near blinding light rounds the corner towards them. She shields her eyes with her free hand, and a familiar cheery voice calls out, “Kiibo, look! Kaede and Kokichi!”

She blinks against the harsh light and says, “Angie-san?”

Angie skips towards her, perfectly silhouetted in the odd halo of light. “Kaede,” she says. “There you are! Angie’s been looking for everyone.”

Kaede squints, attempting to make out her beaming expression even as the blinding light moves closer. “Yeah, I’ve been looking for everyone, too. But, Angie-san, what is that light?”

“Oh?” says Angie. “That’s just Kiibo. God must have told Miu all the lights would go out because she gave Kiibo these super amazing flashlight eyes!”

“That is correct,” Kiibo’s voice says somewhere in distant. “Though I am unsure if Iruma-san was aware what would happen, her foresight is undeniably of great aid for our current situation.”

Ouma pouts. “First I couldn’t see because it was dark, and now I can’t see because Kiiboy and the pig are trying to blind me with their useless inventions…”

“My upgrades are incredibly useful!” Kiibo argues back.

Kaede decides to put a stop to their bickering. “Anyway,” she says. “Have either of you seen anyone else?”

Angie taps a finger to her chin. “Hmm, Angie saw Himiko early this morning before God decided to turn off all the lights.”

“Before the blackout,” Kiibo says. “I saw Momota-kun and Harukawa-san in the dorms, however,” though Kaede cannot see his face, a noticeable edge of worry creeps into his voice. “That was because I was attempting to greet Iruma-san this morning. She… she did not answer her door when I called for her.”

“Yeah,” says Angie. “And so God told Angie that she should help Kiibo look for Miu—Angie wants to keep all her student council members safe.” She grins at Kaede, and then says. “Also, Kaede, why are you and Kokichi handcuffed together?”

Kaede groans. “It’s… not important.”

Ouma says, “So, instead of talking about super boring, I’ll just cut right to the chase. We haven’t see Iruma-chan all day! But, don’t worry Kiiboy, the body announcement wasn’t for her.”

The worry in Kiibo’s voice only increases. “You… Was someone killed?”

“Oh no!” says Angie. “Kokichi, did you already see the body? Who was it?”

Kaede decides to deliver the news before Ouma gets the chance. “Gonta-kun,” she says too quickly. “Ah, I mean… we discovered Gonta-kun’s body on the fourth floor this morning, right before the lights went out…”

“So someone was killed,” Kiibo says solemnly. “And logically… Gonta-kun’s killer is one of us. Also, if you will excuse me for saying this, I… I am even more worried for Iruma-san now.”

“Oh, Kiibo,” Angie says. “God says Miu will totally be okay as long as we pray for her.”

“Y-Yes,” Kiibo says. “Right now I want to believe she is alright and that nothing has happened to her.”

“Why?” asks Ouma. “Just because she’s missing and everything’s dark and there’s a killer running around somewhere?”

Kiibo stutters for a moment. “I-I still wish to believe she is alright. Ah, perhaps I should continue my search then…”

“We already searched the upper floors,” Kaede says. “And I’m afraid we didn’t see her… sorry, Kiibo-kun.”

“Then I will check outside or the basement,” he says. 

“Ah, God says that’s a great plan,” says Angie. “So, Kiibo can search outside or at Miu’s lab or something, and Kaede and Kokichi can check the basement!”

“What about you?” Kaede asks.

“Angie will come to the basement a few steps behind you guys,” Angie answers. “God says that’s the best way to do things.”

Kaede doesn’t protest, but in the even eerier basement with Angie noticeably a few paces back, she can’t help but sigh in frustration at Angie’s obvious attempt to make them walk into danger first. They find the basement empty, even when Kaede forces them briefly to stop at the library to examine the hidden door. 

Angie flutters around the room, and Kaede glares at the bookshelf concealing the path to the mastermind’s lair.

Ouma rocks back and forth on his heels and mumbles under his breath, “they always return to the scene of the crime…”

Kaede just sighs. Louder, so Angie can hear, she says, “I suppose without the power, this door is probably even more impenetrable.”

Angie hums. “Hmm, God says we should leave here.” She skips over to Kaede. “He also says we’ve been wandering around in the dark for forever.”

“No,” says Ouma looking at the clock on his monopad once again. “Just an hour and a half.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “Is that important?”

“Nope,” he says. “But we should really go back to the second floor.” He begins to try and walk away, tugging on Kaede’s arm as he does so. “C’mon, Akamastu-chan!”

She stands firm. “Ouma-kun,” Kaede says, “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what you know about what’s happening.”

He begins to sniffle. “I already said I didn’t know anything… You’re so mean, Akamatsu-chan, suspecting me of keeping secrets…”

Angie tilts her head one way. “Oh? Does Kokichi know something?”

Ouma brings both of his hands to his heart, pulling one of Kaede’s with him. “I just know that it’s dark, and I am a frightened child. I don’t understand why you’re trying to keep us in this weird creepy room where my poor beloved Amami-chan died… Unless,” he grins. “You think it’s Amami-chan’s ghost that’s causing the power outage.”

Angie presses her hands to her cheeks. “Ah! Maybe Rantarou’s ghost is already here waiting for the ritual to start!”

Kaede pinches the bridge of her nose. “Ouma-kun, just tell me why the time is important, and stop pretending it’s not. You’ve been checking your monopad for it every ten minutes, and I refuse to leave this room until you tell me why.”

Ouma pauses for a moment, going blank faced as he stares back up at her glare. Then he examines the nails on his hand. “Fine. The blackout started about twenty minutes before eight this morning. It will end at nine-forty.”

“H-How do you know that—”

“Angie-chan,” Ouma says suddenly. “Were you and Kiiboy together all morning?”

“Hmm, nope!” Angie says. “Angie saw Himiko this morning, but other than that she was by herself when God turned off all the lights. God only guided Angie to Kiibo later.”

Ouma stares at her. “Well,” he says blandly. “That’s frustrating.”

“What is?” Kaede asks.

“Hmm?” Ouma says. “Were you listening in on my conversation with Angie-chan? That’s so rude, Akamatsu-chan! And c’mon! I answered all your dumb questions, so let’s go to the second floor already!”

He begins tugging at her arm again, and Kaede tiredly allows herself to be pulled along. “Why do you want to go to the second floor so badly?”

“Because I want to meet with everyone in the cafeteria!” he says. “Jeeze, Akamatsu-chan, this was your stupid plan in the first place!”

“Oh!” Angie clasps her hands together. “Are we going to eat breakfast now?”

“We’re just trying to meet with the others, Angie-san,” Kaede says, glancing back to her even as Ouma pulls on her arm like a tiny dog on a leash. 

“Oh, God says that’s a great idea,” she answers and skips along behind them without protest.

The entire trip back, Ouma keeps staring at the clock on his monopad, and Kaede notices that the closer the time he predicted the black out to end approaches, the more he yanks on her arm to move faster, almost as if he was anxious about something. When the reach the second floor, Ouma immediately announces they should search around it to see if anyone decided to hide around any corners to jump out at them. 

Kaede rolls her eyes at the suggestion, and says, “Why don’t we check the cafeteria first, and then we can run around aimlessly?”

Ouma pouts. “Fiiine. We have five minutes before the power comes back on, so be fast!”

Kaede hears Angie ask, “Why would we have to be fast? God says all the lights coming back on is a good thing!”

Ouma doesn’t answer and remains oddly silent as they make their way to the cafeteria without seeing a single other person. Kaede spares a glance down at him, and if he was anyone else, she would say he seemed nervous. 

Like clockwork, at nine-forty, a low humming noise begins to echo around the hall. Kaede stops moving. “What is that?”

Ouma keeps trying to move forward. “The power coming back on—I already told you.”

Then, all at once, the lights in the hall begin to flicker back on, and Kaede whips her head to peer out a window, seeing the sky suddenly shining blue again. Angie gasps. “Angie knew God would come help us!”

Kaede stares out the window curiously. “Maybe…”

The speakers begin to crackle to life above them. “—vered. After a certain amount of time has passed, the class trial will begin!”

“The body announcement…” Kaede mumbles. “We… should still go see if anyone’s waiting in the cafeteria.”

They walk the last few remaining steps ahead of them, and Kaede pushes the doors open and screams. Angie hurries to move around them, and gasps, bringing her hands to her mouth. 

For the second time that day, the speakers flick to life, announcing, “A body has been discovered!”

Monokuma’s noise plays idly in the distance as Kaede stares in horror at Yumeno’s small body lying completely motionless on top of the table, her head lolled towards them to see her eyes squeezed shut and bright red marks circling her neck.

Kaede sprints to her, Ouma tripping slightly over his feet to keep up. “Oh God…” Kaede breathes. “Yumeno-san… oh God…”

“But, Angie just saw her this morning!” Angie says, quickly moving around the table to reach Yumeno’s other side. “Himiko was totally fine this morning!”

Ouma stares completely emotionlessly down at her corpse. Over the sounds of Kaede’s racing mind, she hears him mutter under his breath, “looks like I was wrong…”

Before she can question him, Angie says, “God says we need to find everyone and tell them what happened so we can find Himiko’s killer.” She reaches out and grips one of Yumeno’s tiny pale hands. “Angie will pray super extra hard for her.”

Kaede nods. “That… sounds like a good idea, Angie-san…”

She doesn’t notice the way Ouma clenches and unclenches his fists, nails biting into his palms hard enough to draw blood.

The others come. First Shirogane who tells them that Hoshi has no intentions of leaving Gonta’s body. Then the other four all come together as a group after their exploration of outside. Kaede knew it would happen, but she still had no way of possibly preparing herself for Tenko’s reaction. 

Tenko bodily pushes past the others, screaming for Yumeno as she sprints to her side. She reaches her tiny body, Angie still sitting at her side, and Tenko’s entire body seems to seize up and she clutches at the sides of her head, shaking it back and forth as tears begin to pour down her face. Kaede comes behind her and gently places a hand on her back as Tenko’s shoulders begin to shake under the strength of her sobs. 

Behind them, Momota curses. “Damnit. How… how the fuck could anyone do this?”

“It was one of us,” Ouma says dully. “Or, maybe two of us.”

Momota takes a step towards him. “What the hell does that mean!? I am not in the mood for fucking games, you little—”

“He means,” Maki says. “There were two murders. There could be two killers.”

“Um,” Shirogane wrings her hands. “Can that happen? What do we do if… someone else killed Yumeno-san?”

At the mention of her name, Tenko begins crying even harder. 

Kaede keeps rubbing her back and says, “Tenko-san…”

Monokuma chooses that moment to appear. “I’m glad you all asked!”

At the sound of his voice, Tenko whips her head to him. Her voice is the angriest Kaede has ever heard it. “Get out.”

“Aw, is that anyway to treat someone who just wants to tell you about our very special double murder rule?” Monokuma asks. “Because here at—”

“I said leave!” Tenko shouts. 

“Hey!” Momota says, coming to stand between her and Monokuma. “I know you’re pissed off—no one here fucking blames you either, but we need to hear what he has to say.”

“Oh, you do!” Monokuma says. “Because see, all little old me wanted to say is that when someone decides to try and graduate, and then _someone else_ tries to graduate right afterwards, it’s first come first served!”

Silence falls over them, and Angie says, “Angie saw Himiko this morning… so Gonta was probably killed first…”

“Yup, yup, yup!” says Monokuma. “And that means death number two doesn’t matter! Doesn’t mean a thing! Diddly squat!”

Tenko rushes for him at that point, and Momota quickly lunges to grab her around the waist, preventing her from striking the now laughing Monokuma in the face. Through gritted teeth, Momota says, “Chabashira! Calm the hell down!”

“Let go of me!” she screams, thrashing in his grip. “Let go—!”

Standing near them, Kaede sees Tenko thrust her elbow back into his stomach with far more force than either of them were expecting. Momota lets out a strangled sounding gasp, and releases her immediately, stumbling backwards and falling onto his hands and knees, with one hand clutching his stomach. 

The movement distracts Tenko from Monokuma, who takes the opportunity to disappear. She says, “M-Momota-san?” and in front of everyone he lets out a hacking cough and blood splatters on the ground below him.

Maki moves to kneel at his side as he keeps coughing, near desperately struggling to get his breathing back under control. More blood drips from his mouth to the floor below. They all stand around him, silent except for the sound of Momota’s haggard gasping echoing around the room. Between coughs, he wheezes out, “I’m… I’m fine… I’m…”

Maki moves to loop one of his arms over her shoulders. “I’ll take him back to his room.”

“No,” he pants. “I need… I need to fucking… fucking investigate.”

Kaede stares at them with a grim expression. She doesn’t trust Maki, but from the conversation between them she had overheard, she knows the other girl wouldn’t hurt him. At least, she sincerely hopes so. “Okay,” Kaede says. “I’ll come by to check on you later.” Momota looks up at her, blood streaking down from his mouth and he’s about to protest when Kaede says, “And fill you in on everything I find.”

He debates this for a moment then squeezes his eyes shut. “Fine… I’ll be ready for the trial… I just need to fucking…” he looks to Maki. “Lie down or something.”

“You do,” she says.

The two of them begin to limp out of the room, and right before they reach the doors, Tenko calls out, “Tenko is sorry! She didn’t mean—”

“Don’t apologize,” Momota says, spiting more blood at the ground. “Not your fucking fault. Just,” and with blood pooling between his teeth he tries to grin at her, “do your best and fuck up the killer, alright?”

Tenko nods wordlessly, and the doors behind them swing shut. 

More silence follows, and Kiibo clears his throat. “Perhaps now is a bad time to mention this, but… I still have not found Iruma-san. I,” he glances to Yumeno’s body, “I am beginning to become very worried about her.”

Ouma waves a hand. “She’ll turn up.”

“H-How can you just say that so casually?” Shirogane asks. “After… after what happened here, Iruma-san could be—”

“Excuse me everyone,” Kiibo says hurriedly, Shirogane’s comment clearly triggering something in him. “But I think I am going to keep looking for Iruma-san. If I find anything while I search, I will be sure to report back.”

With that, he rushes out of the room, and Kaede distantly hears him calling out Iruma’s name as he runs down the hall. 

“Ah,” Shirogane says, hugging one of her arms. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that…”

Kaede shakes her head. “It’s alright. Besides, finding Iruma-san is still important.”

“But,” Tenko says. “Does that mean we’re the only ones investigating?”

Kaede glances around. “It sure looks that way…”

“Hmm,” Angie says. “God says we should start with the Monokuma Files.”

“Right,” Kaede says. “Ouma-kun, let me see yours.”

He frowns at her but complies. “We should start with Yumeno-chan since she’s here,” Ouma says as he pulls up her file.

Kaede begins reading it. The victim was Yumeno Himiko, Ultimate Magician. She was killed at some point between 7:40 and 9:40 this morning, and her body was discovered in the cafeteria. The cause of death was asphyxiation, likely strangulation due to the wounds around her neck, which indicate an object such as a rope was used. There are no other external injuries. 

Kaede takes a breath and looks up at the others. “We can look at Gonta-kun’s file later,” she turns to Yumeno’s body. “Right now… we should investigate around here.”

“But,” Shirogane says. “Um, didn’t Monokuma say we only need to investigate the first death? A-And, um,” she flicks through to Gonta’s file anyway, despite Kaede’s earlier directions. “The Monokuma File says Gonta-kun was killed at around midnight last night.”

Kaede looks at her, and then turns to Tenko’s grim face, still streaked with tears. “We should still investigate here. We need to find out what happened to Yumeno-san, even if… she was killed by someone else.”

Angie nods. “That’s right! God says we need to find Himiko’s killer.”

“So,” Ouma says. “I think it’s safe to say Yumeno-chan was moved here after she was killed, so the only thing to investigate here is her body.”

Tenko says in a choked voice, “How do you know that?”

“Because,” he answers plainly, all of his previous mischievous energy gone. “Akamatsu-chan and I were in the school the whole time. With Akamatsu-chan’s hearing, she would have heard if there was a struggle or if Yumeno-chan screamed for help. The most likely scenario is someone killed her in a secret place and then moved her here to be discovered.”

“But,” Angie says. “We were in the basement for a while. God doesn’t know if Kaede could hear something happening on the second floor while we were down there.”

Kaede stares hard at him. “Ouma-kun and I have airtight alibis,” Kaede says raising her handcuffed arm. “We were together the entire time with no way to separate, so I don’t think he has a reason to lie right now, but, Ouma-kun—”

“You can accuse me at the trial if you want to,” Ouma says casually. “Right now we need to investigate.”

He takes a step towards Yumeno’s corpse, and Tenko immediately moves in front of him. “Tenko will examine her.”

Ouma raises his hands in surrender. “The body is yours, Chabashira-chan.”

Tenko glares down at him for a few more moments before taking a deep breath and moving to lean over Yumeno’s body. Kaede hears her whisper, “Tenko is sorry, Yumeno-san… Tenko couldn’t protect you…”

She removes Yumeno’s witch hat and pushes back her short hair slightly to get a better view of the angry red markings cutting into her neck. Kaede moves to stand next to her as Tenko carefully moves her hands over her neck. “Tenko thinks,” she says after a moment. “That whatever the killer used was probably rougher and thicker than a rope, like,” Tenko lets out a sigh and her voice breaks over her next words, “l-like a metal w-wire o-or—” she covers her mouth with one of her hands, heavy sobs coming over her anew. “T-Tenko is s-sorry, b-but she c-can’t—”

“It’s okay,” Kaede says gently. “I don’t think there’s much to investigate here anyway.”

Tenko nods, still trying to calm herself down as she rubs at her fresh tears.

Ouma stands silently next to her, and he says, “Her ear.”

Kaede’s eyes dart to him, and then to where his eyes are trained at a spot of dried blood just behind Yumeno’s right ear. “You’re right,” Kaede says, brushing more of her hair out of the way to get a better look. “There’s blood here.”

“But,” says Angie. “Angie thought the Monokuma File said there were no other injuries, and her neck doesn’t look bloody.”

“No,” says Kaede. “It doesn’t. So the question is why is this here?”

“It’s a mystery,” Ouma says. “Buuut, Akamatsu-chan and I should go investigate Gonta’s corpse now!”

“Huh?” Kaede says as he starts trying to head out the door. “Why?”

“Because there are three people here who can handle it! Duh!” Ouma says. “Aaaand, we’re on a time limit!”

Kaede frowns at him, but Tenko’s hoarse voice says, “Go. Tenko… wants to stay here anyway. She’ll tell you if she finds anything else…”

Kaede turns back to give her a sympathetic look, and Shirogane says, “I can stay here, too, to look around. I’ve also… already seen Gonta-kun’s body…”

“Angie hasn’t,” Angie says. “God’s wondering if Angie should take a look then?”

Ouma pulls a face, and Kaede says, “If you want to.”

Angie jumps up from the table. “Okay, Angie will come, too, and she’ll spend the entire time praying for Himiko and Gonta!”

“That sounds like a nice idea, Angie-san,” Kaede says, and the three of them wander back out of the room. 

With the darkness gone, Angie skips ahead easily, and Ouma mutters, “You know, it’s hard to tell if you actually want to know what I have to say or not.”

Kaede lowers her voice and keeps her eyes on Angie as she says, “So you feel like talking now?”

Ouma goes silent for a moment. Then, “I guessed wrong. And now I’m going to make up for that.”

“What are you talking about?” Kaede asks.

He nods, looking straight ahead. “We’ll find Iruma-chan, soon. If you talk to her, you’ll figure it out.”

Kaede attempts to engage him a few more times, but he remains tightlipped the entire way back up to the fourth floor.

They reach the three rooms, and Kaede sees the door to the middle one has been bodily removed from its hinges, lying flatly out in the center of the hallway. She grimaces at it, as Angie daintily steps over it to peer inside. Her eyes immediately widen, and she rushes in. Kaede hears her call, “What happened to Angie’s statues!?”

Kaede’s about to go after her, when she sees something odd out of the corner of her eye. With a frown, she approaches the far door where the ritual was supposed to take place, and sees what appears to be the mechanism for a second one of Iruma’s locks placed on it. She kneels down and runs her fingers over it. “When did Iruma-san put this here?”

Kaede stands and tries to open the door to little avail. “Ouma-kun, could you try picking this?”

Ouma hums, and examines it, tilting his head one way and then the other. “Hmm, looks like one of the locks can only be opened from the outside and one from the inside.”

Kaede frowns. “Why would there be one that can only be opened from the inside?”

Ouma shrugs. “It’s a mystery. I guess you’ll have to ask Iruma-chan. Ah, speaking of which…”

At his words, Kaede turns to see Kiibo jogging towards them from down the hall. “Akamatsu-san,” he says. “I have searched everywhere, and I still have not been able to find Iruma-san—have you seen her?”

Kaede glares down at Ouma as she says, “No, I haven’t. But, Kiibo-kun, I have a feeling you should investigate this room with us.”

He stares at her openmouthed for a moment. “I know I have not been investigating, but—”

“It’s okay,” Kaede says. “I just think this room might tell us something about what happened to Iruma-san, and,” she moves to glance inside and makes out Hoshi motionlessly sitting in front of Gonta’s body now positioned to lie down on the ground. “And… we need to search here anyway.”

Kiibo follows her gaze and nods. “I will do my best.”

With a grim determination propelling her forward, Kaede steps inside and notices Angie fluttering back and forth to each of her statues, mumbling about how someone could possibly deface them. 

Kaede kneels down next to Hoshi who just sits, silently staring at Gonta’s face. She clears her throat. “Hoshi-kun,” she says. “Did you, ah, have you found anything?”

He remains quiet a moment longer and says in a low voice, “Haven’t been looking. Just moved his body out of that horrible thing.”

“I-I see,” Kaede says. “Ah, I’m not sure if you know, but, um, Yumeno-san… was also killed.”

Hoshi takes another long pause. Then, “Poor Chabashira.”

“R-Right,” Kaede stutters, and she begins to move back to her feet, when Hoshi fishes something out of his pocket and holds it up to her.

“Found this in his pocket when I was moving him,” Hoshi says, eyes not moving from Gonta’s body. “It’s a note—probably from the killer. I don’t want to look at it anymore.”

Kaede nods tightly and gently takes it from his grasp. She unfolds the piece of paper and holds it down lower to stop Ouma from jumping up and down to try and read it. It appears to be a piece of computer paper and in printed letters it reads, “Come to the fourth floor at midnight or Hoshi will be killed.”

Kaede feels her chest tighten, and she looks back down to Hoshi still sitting motionless. She reads it again, eyes running over the words but barely processing them. The note catches her so thoroughly off guard that she only realizes Ouma has taken out his monopad to pull up Gonta’s file when he shoves it into her face. 

“A-Ah, right,” she says and begins to read it. The victim was Gokuhara Gonta, the Ultimate Entomologist. His time of death was approximately midnight last night. His cause of death was a stab wound through his chest going all the way through one side and out the other. There are no other external wounds.

Kaede reads it over again then gestures for Ouma to move slightly away from Hoshi and towards Kiibo and Angie inspecting Amami’s statue in one of the far corners. When she approaches them, she lowers her voice, and says, “The Monokuma File said Gonta-kun was stabbed with a sword that went all the way through him. Are Yumeno-san’s swords long enough to do that?”

Kiibo places a hand to his chin in thought. Angie continues trying to pull the sword lodged in Amami’s chest free. “They are certainly long enough to go through one of Angie-san’s statues,” he answers. 

“That’s right,” Kaede answers. “And they’re also supposed to stretch the entire distance of the box… which is where we found him…”

Kiibo nods. “It sounds like one of the swords is likely the murder weapon, then. However, none of the ones on the ground appear to be bloody, so,” he turns to Angie. “Angie-san and I are attempting to see if the killer tried to hide the murder weapon in one of her statues.”

“Angie doesn’t understand why the killer would do that, though,” she says. “Especially since Angie was just gonna pull them out anyway!” She gives it another yank, and it comes free, leaving a rather wide hole in Amami’s stomach. She examines it for a moment before letting it clamor to the ground and huffing. “Angie doesn’t even know why her statues are here! She thought she placed them in the other room yesterday, and—” 

Her face freezes as she begins hurriedly shoving her hands in her pockets, likely grasping around for something. Kiibo asks, “Is something the matter, Angie-san?”

“Angie’s keys are missing!” she announces, pulling her pockets out to turn them inside out. “Angie had the key for her lab and for the room for the ritual.”

“And they’re both gone?” Kaede asks. “When did your keys—” she cuts herself off as she remembers something that happened in that room only a few hours ago. “W-Why don’t we investigate something else for now, Angie-san?”

Angie huffs. “But Angie needs the key to her lab so she can repair her statues!”

Kaede internally questions if now is the best time for that, but she says, “Angie-san, I’m going to take another look at this sword, if that’s alright.”

Angie shrugs. “If Kaede thinks it’s important, God says she should do it.”

Kaede nods and plucks it from the ground, weighing the thick blade in her hands. She glances around again, spying the statues of Tojo and Shinguji in similar positions to Amami’s. “Kiibo-kun, could you investigate Shinguji-kun’s statue? And Angie-san, would you mind taking a look at Tojo-san’s?”

Ouma bounces up and down. “Are we going to investigate Saihara-chan’s?”

Kaede clenches her jaw. “I was planning on it.”

“Okay!” he says, immediately moving to pull her over to it. “Let’s see if there are any weird fun secrets with it!”

Kaede sighs as Ouma tugs her towards the one statue without a sword in it, and Kaede internally curses that is just had to be Saihara’s statue that she’d need to thoroughly examine. She walks around it, seeing no places where it appears anything was stabbed through or any other puncture marks. Kaede steps back from it, eyes grazing over it from the all too familiar hat sitting atop its head to its feet, and she pauses, narrowing her eyes, as she spies the traces of something gold and shiny on the side of one of his feet. 

She’s about to reach out to examine it more when she hears Angie call, “Okay, Angie and Kiibo are done!”

“Yes,” says Kiibo. “And in my search, I can conclude that Shinguji-kun’s statue is exactly the same as Amami-kun’s.”

“O-Okay,” says Kaede, hurrying over to them. “Um, Saihara-kun’s statue…” she looks over Kiibo and Angie’s expectant faces and feels Ouma lightly tug on her arm and she makes a decision. “It seems, his was untouched. I don’t know why, but the killer didn’t seem to mess with it.”

“That is strange,” Kiibo says, crossing his arms. “Is there a reason why the killer would do a thing like this in the first place, or was it just to distract us?”

Angie puffs out her cheeks. “Angie just wants to know who messed with her art.”

“We’ll probably find the answer to that later,” Kaede says. 

“Weeeeell,” Ouma drawls. “Did anybody find anything else? Anybody metal?”

Kiibo frowns. “I… did actually discover something else suspicious, yes.”

Kaede blinks at him. “You did?”

He nods. “Yes, while I was walking towards Shinguji-kun’s statue, I noticed the floor seemed even more unstable. I—I actually almost fell through at one point.”

“Huh,” says Kaede. “Can you show me where?”

Kiibo nods again and gingerly walks a few paces towards the wall dividing them between their room and the ritual room. “About here, I felt the floorboards were not as stable, and I made an effort to move more carefully.”

“That’s strange,” Kaede says. “I was here for a long time yesterday, and I don’t remember anything like that.”

“Maybe that’s because,” Ouma says dramatically and he leans down, squeezing his fingers around the side of one of the floorboards and lifting it up. “Someone broke the floor!”

Kaede just stares at him in shock. 

Angie gasps. “How did you know that Kokichi?”

“How—why would someone do that?” Kaede asks.

Ouma lets it fall with a clatter next to him. “It’s a mystery.”

Kiibo kneels over the new opening. “It appears very dark down here,” he begins to say. “However there is quite a bit of room, and—Iruma-san!”

With his sudden shout he scrambles to rip another board out of place that comes easily enough in his grip. Kiibo’s flashlight eyes roar on, and after squinting against the light, Kaede firmly makes out a figure in a familiar pink dress lying face down under the floor. 

Kiibo directs his illuminating gaze downwards, and Kaede spies the even more horrifying sight of what is distinctly a pool of dried blood below them. Kiibo moves fast, and after Kaede centers herself again, she moves after him, gingerly stepping down into the sticky splotches of blood below them, before forcing herself to crawl to keep up with Kiibo.

Ouma seems half annoyed, but moves along easily enough with her as they approach Kiibo, moving to cradle Iruma’s body. “Iruma-san,” he says jostling her slightly. “Iruma-san, please wake up!”

For a moment the same sense of dread that Kaede had felt so strongly before overtakes her, and she feels her chest seize up again, as Kiibo continues to desperately shake Iruma’s body. He continues to call her name, and Kaede gently says, “Kiibo-kun, I think…”

Kiibo presses her closer to him, bowing his head over her. “Please do not say it, Akamatsu-san. I know… what has happened.”

Kaede nods grimly. 

Ouma yawns. “Please, Kiiboy, stop crying.”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede snaps. “How can you—”

“Easy,” he says. “The body announcement hasn’t gone off. Look, the pig’s moving already.”

Kiibo and Kaede both freeze and slowly look down at Iruma shifting slightly in Kiibo’s arms. Kiibo looks at her in awe. “Iruma-san…?”

She shifts a bit more, groaning as she does so, “Ugh, what the fuck is…” Iruma’s eyelashes flicker and she groggily reaches up to begin rubbing at her eyes. “Fucking… terrible place for a nap,” she mutters.

“You… were sleeping?” Kaede asks.

“Huh?” Iruma looks up at her. “What are you doing here, whale-tits? And—” she seems to notice all at once that she’s being held in Kiibo’s arms. 

Her entire face flushes pink, and Kiibo reaches out to press a hand to her forehead in worry. “Iruma-san, you’re burning up! A-And you appear to be uncontrollably drooling.”

“Told you she was fine,” Ouma says in a sing song voice.

At his words, Iruma’s head snaps to him, and she dramatically flails her arms to jab a finger inches from his face. “You little cocksucking shitstain!” she screeches. “This is all your fault!”

Kaede looks between them. “What’s his fault?”

“The reason why I’m taking a goddamn nap in this goddamn hell pit!” Iruma shouts. “That little prick locked me in here!”

Kaede and Kiibo both turn to Ouma who innocently places a finger on his chin. “Huh? Did I forget to mention that?”

Iruma begins to scream obscenities, and Kaede rests back on her heels, staring openmouthed at Ouma, even more confused about the case than before they started their investigation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From the start, I kind of knew the investigation would take two chapters, so next chapter will ideally be the rest of the investigation and hopefully part of the trial. Also double murder, because what's chapter 3 without one?
> 
> Edit: RandomMunchkin on Ao3 drew fan art for this chapter!!! It is wonderful, and I love it!  
> https://iamclearlyyouroverlord.tumblr.com/post/163378709694/some-scruffy-fanart-for-the-fic-id-trade-my-life


	15. Investigation II

“—and shove it up your fucking boney ass!” Iruma screams at a rather bored looking Ouma. 

She keeps going, and Kaede opts to raise her voice over Iruma’s din of vulgarities, shouting, “Iruma-san! Stop yelling! Just tell us what happened.”

Kiibo chimes in. “Yes. Though I understand you are angry at Ouma-kun, it would be best for everyone if you could work out your problems with him at a different time.” His face turns grim as he shares a look with Kaede. “We are unfortunately on a time limit, after all.”

Iruma snorts. “Yeah, I’ll fucking sort something out with the little piece of shit later. Also,” she turns to Kiibo. “The fuck are we on a time limit for?”

Kaede furrows her brow. “You don’t know?”

“No?” Iruma says. “I’ve been stuck in this hellpit since last night—I don’t know shit.”

“‘Last night?’” Kiibo echoes.

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “When did you trap Iruma-san down here?”

He hums. “Weeeell, I wouldn’t say ‘trap,’ and I wouldn’t say ‘down here,’ buuuuut,” he taps a finger to his chin. “Think it was one in the morning or something.”

“Does that sound right?” Kaede asks Iruma.

She frowns but nods. “Yeah. Did none of you assholes notice I was missing?”

“Kiiboy did,” says Ouma. “But no one else really cared, so I really don’t think it’s a big deal.”

Iruma seems on the verge of going on another tirade, so Kaede preempts her with, “ _Anyway_ , Iruma-san, can you give us the full story about what happened to you? It might be really important.”

Iruma crosses her arms and settles herself more comfortably in Kiibo’s arms to his mild confusion. “Alright, so last night, I’m just working in my lab—minding my own damn business—when small, pasty, and ugly came banging on my door. He told me Angie let him into the student council, and—”

Kiibo interrupts, asking, “Is that true, Ouma-kun? I thought you said you had no intentions of joining the student council.”

Ouma nods eagerly. “Yup! It was a lie, but Iruma-chan didn’t think twice, right Iruma-chan?”

She scowls at him. “I’m gonna fucking bash your skull in one of these days.”

“Like to see you try, pig,” he says, grinning widely. 

“So, Ouma-kun lied about being on the student council,” Kaede says, “and what happened next?”

Iruma keeps glaring but continues her story. “Next,” she says, “he started going on and on about how apparently Angie needed another fucking lock installed on the fourth floor. I already had a couple extras made, ‘cause I’m prepared as shit, so I went up to the goddamn fourth floor, and the door to this room was open, so I fucking start—”

“Wait,” Kaede says. “‘The door to this room?’”

“Yeah,” she says. “Room for the weird ass fucking ritual, so anyway—”

“Iruma-san,” Kiibo says. “We are currently under the floor in the middle room.”

Iruma blinks. “No,” she says slowly. “We’re like, between the fuckers.” She points up at a particularly thick bored suspended above them. “Bam—motherfucking support beam. I had to crawl on my goddamn hands and knees to get here. And not in a fun way.”

“And then you took a nap?” Kaede asks.

“W-Well,” Iruma stutters. “I-I was really tired you know? And it was nice and dark and warm down here…”

Ouma waves a hand. “Doesn’t matter—pigs are used to sleeping in dirt. So what happened next Iruma-chan?”

“Go fuck yourself with a spiked dildo,” she spits before jabbing a finger at the handcuffs still securely around his and Kaede’s wrists. “Stop kinkshaming me when you’re fucking parading around your bondage fetish!” 

Kaede sputters, “It-It absolutely is nothing like that.”

“Yeah,” Ouma agrees. “I’m not interested in Akamatsu-chan.”

To Kaede’s relief, Kiibo says, “Iruma-san could you tell us what happened next? We still only have so much time.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine. So I’m there, and I’m, like, half inside the room or whatever to install it, and when I finished, I stand up and ask the little twink if Angie wanted anymore shit, and then! Then!” she thrusts a finger in his again. “He fucking elbows me in the ribs and shoves me in here and locked me the fuck in! _And_ all of the candles were blown out so it was darker than Satan’s asshole!”

“And that’s what happened!” Ouma cheers. “So story time with Iruma-chan is over now?”

Kaede ignores him. “So you were here all night? And how did you get under the floor?”

Iruma tosses some of her hair over her shoulder. “You bet your ass I was. And after screaming for help didn’t work ‘cause everyone here is a big, fat whale dick, I took a nap for a while. On escape attempt, two, I started groping around in the dark and found some of the floorboards were loose. Shota must have sawed out the supports or something.”

“And then she crawled under here and fell asleep again and didn’t notice the blood only a few feet from her,” Ouma says. “Can we get back to investigating now? Listening to Iruma-chan is so boring…”

Iruma blinks. “‘Blood?’”

“Ah, Iruma-san,” Kiibo says. “While you were asleep… Gonta-kun and Yumeno-san were killed. We were investigating the crime scene when we found you.”

“Actually,” Ouma chirps. “Gonta was already dead by the time Iruma-chan got here.” He turns his monopad to the group. “Time of death is midnight, meaning Iruma-chan was next to a dead body this whole time.”

Kaede sees all the color drain from Iruma’s face as the other girl goes a near deathly shade of white. “Wh-Wh- _WHAT_!?” she shrieks, voice piercing. Iruma immediately begins to thrash in Kiibo’s arms, “Get me out of here! Get me the _fuck_ out of here, right now!”

“Iruma-san!” Kiibo says. “Please calm down!”

“No, no, no, no!” Iruma screams. “Y-You!” she points a trembling finger at Ouma. “Y-You fucking tried to kill me!”

Ouma pouts as if he was told he couldn’t have another piece of candy. “I did not,” he says. “Akamatsu-chan, Iruma-chan’s telling dirty lies about me.”

Iruma keeps panicking. “I-I see what’s going on here! You fucking trapped me in here so you could come back and kill me! W-Well,” she scrambles out of Kiibo’s grip awkwardly on to all fours. “I-I’m not gonna let you!”

With her declaration, Iruma scuttles past them in a near state of hysteria to the light shining down from the opening Kiibo had created to get down to her. Kaede hears Kiibo calling out her name and Iruma screaming as she steps in the dried blood before clumsily pulling herself back out from under the floor. Kiibo begins chasing after her when Iruma shrieks again—likely at the sight of Gonta’s body, Kaede guesses—and her heavy footsteps pound out of the room, Angie’s cheery out of place greeting following after her.

Alone with Ouma under the floor, Kaede lowers her voices and says, “You have some explaining to do.”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. I think Iruma-chan covered most of what happened.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Kaede says. “So, do you feel like telling me why you basically tormented Iruma-san all night?”

“Nope!” Ouma says. “Also, if I were you, I would look around here a little more, and think about part of Iruma-chan’s story that seems a little weird.”

“I’m asking you right now about the part that seems weird,” Kaede says.

“No,” he answers. “You’re not. Buuuut, we’re wasting time! There’re blood stains to investigate!”

Kaede rolls her eyes but crawls forward towards the splotch of dried blood near the center of the room, under the opening Kiibo created. Upon closer inspection—and with Ouma shining the light of his monopad over it—Kaede notices that the blood smeared below them seems to be a thick puddle rather than a few haphazard drips. To check, she glances up at the floorboards still overhead. She experimentally runs her fingers over them, but they all appear to be clean except for smudges along the insides of the boards making up their opening. 

She frowns at it and is about to voice her observation aloud, when she seems Ouma nonchalantly sweeping his handcuffed hand through the dried blood lying thick on the floor. Kaede, squawks, “What are you doing?” while rearing her hand back.

Ouma puffs out his cheeks at her. “I was just trying to see why the blood was clumped up differently in different places. Jeeze, Akamatsu-chan, you don’t let me do anything fun.”

Kaede glares at him but spares a glance down notices that part of the dried blood seems to be more thickly congealed. She squints down at it, noting how it almost seems like something had stopped some of the blood from dripping down. Ouma moves his monopad to project its glow to the far end of the puddle, and a series of scattered splotches leading the other way through the darkness shine into focus.

Kaede’s eyes widen at them, and she tugs on her wrist to signal to Ouma her intent to move around towards them. “We’re following that trail,” she says.

Crawling along in the dark, the increasingly faint smears of blood lead them under another one of the thicker support beams Iruma had pointed out earlier, signaling their arrival to the floor below the last of the three rooms. 

The trail comes to a complete stop at a spot slightly off center, and Kaede stares up through the darkness at the floorboards above them before experimentally reaching up to push on the one directly above them. It moves with almost no resistance other than its natural weight, and Kaede allows herself to straighten into a standing position to push it up and aside completely, finally poking her head out into the next room. 

She pauses for a moment, staring at the board she just moved, examining the uneven cuts on the sides of it.

She’s about to ask if the boards in the other room had been cut like that when Ouma pops up like a jack-in-the-box next to her, saying, “Ta-da! And we’re here!”

Kaede rolls her eyes as she moves to climb out of the newly discovered opening. “Someone,” she says, grunting as she pulls herself up, “obviously was under the floor for some reason.”

Ouma scampers up after her. “Obviously for some reason,” he muses. “You might want to be a little more specific than that at the trial, Akamatsu-chan.”

Kaede huffs but finally stands, surveying the room. “There’s a good chance the killer was here at some point after the murder,” she says. “I suppose it wouldn’t be too hard to clean up blood in one of the rooms, but they probably didn’t think they’d need to do anything about the space under the floor. Here,” she pulls lightly with her handcuffed wrist. “We need to look around.”

Ouma rocks back and forth on his heels. “Can we start with the big saw-thingie? It looks exciting!”

Kaede frowns but sees no reason not to and allows herself to be dragged over to the saw now strangely lying on its side near the opening they just crawled out of. She kneels down to inspect it, noticing a distinct coating of sawdust on the once spotless blade. “The killer probably used this to saw up the floor in here and the other rooms,” she says. “I guess the question now is why…”

“No,” says Ouma. “The real question is why do you keep assuming things.”

She turns to him. “‘Assuming things?’” she says, voice hardening. “What do you think I’m assuming?”

He shrugs. “You’ll figure it out eventually, now,” he taps a finger to his chin. “What else in here is important, hmm…” 

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says firmly. “Why do you keep talking like you already know everything about the murder?”

He smiles. “I already said—you’re figure it out eventually. Buuut, in the meantime, let’s check out mysterious box number one!”

Ouma begins pulling her over to the large box still situated firmly in the center of the room. Kaede begins inspecting the arm where the saw had been held above it and sees no overt signs of damage or any other indications that it was forcefully pulled apart. “Looks like the killer knew how to take the saw down, and,” she gives the rest of the box a cursory glance over. “Nothing seems broken…”

“Nothing is broken in here except the floor,” Ouma says before suddenly dropping down to all fours on the ground, physically yanking Kaede down beside him. “Man, the spaces between the floorboards are really thin in some places—must have been tricky getting a saw through them.”

Kaede frowns. “What are you talking about? The killer didn’t saw between the boards—there’s literally nothing there.”

“So there is,” he says before standing again, Kaede warily returning to her feet with a groan. “Well,” he brushes his hands together. “I think we’re done here. Back to room number two!”

Kaede insists on giving the room once last cursory look over but finds little else of interest, and she follows Ouma back out into the hall without complaint. 

Upon reentering the second room, Angie immediately gasps in surprise at their arrival. “Kaede? Kokichi? How did you get there?”

“Get where?” Kaede asks.

Angie looks from the open space in the floor to them and back again. “Angie saw you go under the floorboards—did you sneak back out without her noticing?”

There are two questions weighing on her mind, and Kaede makes the quick decision to ask the one that gives away the least information. “That’s strange. We were using Ouma-kun’s monopad to light our way around under there? Did you see the light?”

Angie taps her chin. “Hmm, Angie thinks she saw light around the opening, buuuut God wants to know if you were angling it up back towards the floorboards or not…”

Kaede recalls their brief crawl through, completely focused on the trail of blood. “Mostly at the ground, I think…”

“Oh,” Angie says. “Angie gets it! Maybe if all the lights in here were turned off or something, Angie would have seen the light, though!”

“So,” Kaede says, voice dropping volume. “Even though it’s dark, you can move around under the floorboards without being noticed if you’re careful with your light source…” she presses a hand to her chin. “Maybe the killer used that to take Gonta-kun by surprise or something?”

“Doesn’t make sense,” Hoshi says, gravelly voice, catching Kaede off guard. “Killer sent him a note. You don’t threaten someone and then try and surprise them.” He keeps staring at Gonta’s body. “Doesn’t make sense.”

Angie says, “Someone sent Gonta a note?”

Hoshi doesn’t respond to her, leaving Kaede to awkwardly clear her throat, saying, “Uh, Hoshi-kun found a note on his body telling… telling him to come to the fourth floor at midnight. The killer probably printed it out at the computer room, so unfortunately we can’t try and compare everyone’s hand writing to figure it out…”

“Hmmm,” Angie says. “Should Angie look around the computer room then? God says we’ve looked at everything important here.”

“You go on ahead,” Kaede says. “There’s still a few things I want to check out first.”

Angie tilts her head back and forth, debating something, before saying, “Okay! But God says not to keep Angie waiting!”

She skips out of the room, and with her gone, Hoshi finally says, “Akamatsu.”

“Y-Yes?” Kaede stutters. 

“You said Yumeno was killed, too, right?” he says. “Think it was the same person?”

Kaede lets out a sigh. “I don’t know, but,” she bites her lip. “I kind of hope it is. Knowing two different people here could have done something like this, and that one of them could just get away with it like it was nothing…”

“Makes you sick,” says Ouma. “Doesn’t it?”

Kaede glares down at him, ready to fight back against his jab at her, when Hoshi says, “Yes.” Kaede snaps her head back to him and sees him clenching his fists. “It does.”

Quietly, Kaede says to Ouma, “Come on—we need to go under the floor to get to the last room.”

They pass by Hoshi silently and reenter the dark passageway. There’s no trail to guide them to the right spot, but using the light of Ouma’s monopad, they find the still open entrance Kaede assumes Iruma used to crawl underneath beforehand. 

With the candles snuffed out, the room is almost completely pitch black, and Kaede strains her eyes against the darkness. Next to her, Ouma says, “There’s nothing here.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Kaede insists. “Especially since the killer had to be here since they moved the statues to the middle room.”

Ouma shrugs, saying, “There’s still nothing here,” but doesn’t complain even as they begin their slow search through the dark room. 

Kaede is almost about to agree with him that the excursion was a complete waste of time as much of the room consists of little other than a series of symbols inscribed on the floor that Kaede assumes Angie painted the day before. The actual book for the ritual weighs heavy in her bag, and Kaede absently wonders if Angie had memorized or drawn out the patterns she would need before the book had gone missing.

They do come across a discarded handsaw lying flat again the far wall. Kaede examines it briefly, saying, “The killer probably also used this saw to pull up the floorboards. But mostly, I suppose it’s a good thing Iruma-san didn’t bump into this when she had to feel her way around in the dark.”

Ouma shrugs. “She would’ve lived. Messed up evidence, but you know.”

There is little else of interest that Kaede would deem important to the case at hand, when in one of the far corners, something sparkly and golden leaps to life when it catches the light of Ouma’s monopad. “There,” Kaede says, pointing to it. “What’s that?”

She kneels down next to it, brushing her fingers over the strange glitter, and some of the gold immediately latches itself on to her. “This,” she says rubbing it between her fingers. “This was the stuff that was on the statue of Saihara-kun.” She frowns as the gold seems more persistent to stay on her fingers than she assumed it would be. “Looks like it really likes to stick to stuff, too.”

“Have we seen anything like that before?” Ouma asks. “Anything sparkly and golden and I got yelled at for touching?”

Kaede furrows her brow, attempting to recall the memory. “Let’s go to Shinguji-kun’s lab before meeting with Angie-san,” she says.

“Good choice,” Ouma says. 

The door leading to the hall is still firmly locked from the outside, prompting Kaede to direct them back through the floorboards. Back in the dark path, Kaede is about to bemoan just how dirty she has likely gotten from being forced to crawl for almost the entirety of the investigation when she notices just how bright the gold still coating her fingertips shines with only the slightest touches of light. 

She frowns but doesn’t comment on it, and upon hauling herself back up through the hole for what she hopes is the final time, she hears Hoshi say, “Find anything?”

“Ah,” Kaede’s attention snaps to him. “A few things, I think.”

“Good,” Hoshi says with a slight nod of his head. He reaches into his pocket to begin fiddling with a candy cigarette, an unreadable expression on his face. Then, he says, “If it matters, the last place I saw Gonta last night was his lab.” He shrugs. “Might not be important, but…” he lets out a sigh, “last known locations matters in crime shows or something.” He pulls his hat down. “I don’t know.”

Kaede nods. “I’ll make sure to search there.”

Ouma makes a whining noise next to her. “But we already have so many other places to go to, and,” he raises his hand linked to her, “I still have to get these dumb handcuffs off.”

“You put them there!” Kaede says

“And now Akamastu-chan’s yelling at me…” he begins to sniffle.

“Akamatsu,” Hoshi says sharply. “Can you get him out of here? I’m not in the mood to listen to him…”

Quieter, Ouma whimpers, “Hoshi-chan is so mean to me…”

Kaede begins to pull him across the room to the door, “We’re leaving, and,” she pauses in the door frame, “I’m really sorry, Hoshi-kun. You…” her eyes linger over Gonta’s body, “You do whatever you need to do.”

Hoshi doesn’t respond, and Kaede and Ouma walk through the dimly lit halls to Shinguji’s cavernous lab without a word between them. The door to it still remains in tatters, and Kaede gingerly steps through the gaping hole. She’s waiting for Ouma to do the same as she glances around the room, and he’s still stepping through when she spies what they came for. 

Ouma seems to quickly notice it too, and they move in silence towards the center of the room to get a closer look at the now empty display that had once held a sword sheathed in a sparklingly gold case. Kaede looks closer, and holds up her hand to compare the gold flakes still on her hands to the ones lingering on the display. They’re a near perfect match, and Kaede says, “There’s no way this isn’t related to the case.”

Ouma hums in agreement. “The real question now is just where did our mystery sword wandered off to.”

“The killer probably stashed it somewhere,” Kaede answers. “But… why would they even take this sword?”

Ouma shrugs. “It’s a mystery.”

Kaede sighs. “Well, I think that’s the only thing we needed here anyway. We should probably meet up with Angie-san in the computer room, now, and maybe,” she gestures aggressively with her handcuffed wrist, causing Ouma to stumble, “we can find something that will get these off.”

Ouma recovers, and cheerily says, “We won’t.”

-

Angie’s engaged in conversation with Monokuma when they arrive in the computer room. She turns to them and gasps, “There you guys are! Angie was just asking all about how the computers work. Angie doesn’t know a lot about computers, so God said she should ask Monokuma.”

Monokuma says, “When I was a young cub, looking for my next big step in life, I held a humble position as an IT employee. Then I moved to a village full of old people to start my real career…”

Kaede frowns. “Okay, so, Angie-san,” she says. “What did you find out?”

Monokuma wilts. “My life story… completely brushed aside like it was nothing…”

Angie says, “Okay, okay, so, like, Monokuma told Angie that he doesn’t like to explain things about the computers to people, and they need to figure them out on their own and stuff, but he also said something like printing a note would be super easy for anyone to figure out.”

“So,” Kaede says. “Anyone could have done it?”

“Maybe,” Ouma says. “But do either of you really think Monokuma would give a hint to the identity of the killer like that anyway?”

“Hmm,” says Angie. “God says that’s a good point, which is why he also told Angie to see if there’s a log or something to figure out when people used the computers and stuff!”

“Is there?” Kaede asks.

“Yup, yup!” says Angie, gesturing to a computer. “Monokuma was being super nice and helping Angie look at it.”

Kaede turns to the bear. “I thought Angie-san said you don’t like explaining things about the computers?”

“I don’t,” he answers. “But if it’s for an investigation, who am I to get in the way?”

“The person making us kill each other,” Kaede answers curtly.

Monokuma laughs. “Good point! But as you kids might know, I’m beary busy taking care of a last few bugs caused by a certain incident.”

“You mean the blackout?” Kaede asks. “What do you know about that?”

“Hmm?” he tilts his head. “I’m afraid I don’t know anything. Bears have very poor night vision, you know.”

“You’re just going to keep quiet about it,” Ouma says. “That’s how you’re playing this.”

“I’m not playing anything!” Monokuma says. “I’ve told you time and time again, any and all nonsense is one hundred percent on you guys. Beat, brutalize, blackout—it’s all got nothing to do with me.”

“So,” says Ouma, a strange seriousness creeping over him. “You, Monokuma, the robot bear, had nothing to do with any of the incidents that occurred.”

“True, true, true!” says Monokuma. “And you can take my word. Bears never lie!”

“God says bears can’t talk,” Angie muses, clicking the mouse absently on the computer before her. 

Ouma keeps going. “I see, buuut,” his smile turns dark, “do your rules apply when there’s nothing to enforce them?”

Monokuma bears his claws. “I’m not sure I like where you’re going with that mister. Are you implying I can’t enforce my own rules? I am an absolute stickler for the rules, I’ll have you know, and I’d give myself over to mushy-gushy hope before I fail to enforce my rules!”

“But,” Kaede says. “That’s not what Ouma-kun was asking. He was asking about moments when the rules are… null and void, I guess?”

Monokuma’s face suddenly goes blank, and without another sound, he waddles away, vanishing to places unknown.

“That’s suspicious,” Kaede says.

“Sooo,” Angie says from her computer. “Angie thinks Monokuma is totally the killer, and also God says this information is really important!”

She points to a specific line on the screen before her. Kaede peers at it, and it appears to be a list of times the computers were logged into. The dates go back several days with large chunks of time in between them. “These first ones are probably Iruma-san,” Kaede says. “She comes up here a lot, right?”

Angie hums. “That’s what Angie thinks, buuut what about this latest one?” She points again to a line begins to say when the computers were accessed, but the time is replaced by a series of corrupted symbols. “Angie doesn’t understand this one,” she says. “Even God’s confused by it.”

Kaede stares hard at it. “I think we can guess that’s the one we need, and unfortunately, it looks like Monokuma’s protecting the killer. So much for not interfering with the investigation.” She sighs. “Well, I guess there’s nothing else up here.”

Angie nods. “Angie thinks she’s going to try looking around for her keys now. God thinks maybe the killer stole them.”

Kaede feels her throat tighten, but she says, “Uh, yeah, that’s a possibility.”

They part ways with Angie perhaps a bit too quickly, and on the way down to the third floor, Ouma says, “Let’s check out Gonta’s lab, and then go back to the dorms.” He shakes his handcuffed wrist. “There’s not much point in wearing this anymore.”

“What does that mean?” Kaede asks.

“It means it served its purpose,” he says. “And—”

“I’ll figure it out eventually?” Kaede interrupts, parroting the mocking words he had thrown at her so many times before.

Ouma grins. “See that you do.”

-

Kaede can’t help but feel a sense of deep sadness when she pushes open the pretty butterfly door to Gonta’s talent lab. Inside, bugs of all species flutter and crawl, and though they emit no emotion, Kaede can’t help but feel they’re waiting for an owner who will never return. 

She stops, paused in a moment of her own sadness as the loss of one of her friends fully hits her all at once. Ouma keeps moving forward, wide eyes fixed on something on the center table. Kaede follows his gaze and sees what appears to be a smashed microscope, its pieces scattered in a pile across the table. 

Kaede blinks down at it. “I…” she says, “Was not expecting this.”

Ouma is far more curious about it then Kaede would have predicted, and his words are an order when he says, “Keep looking around. If there was a microscope, there are probably samples or slides.”

Kaede joins him in searching the table, wary of the broken glass littering it. Through her search, she watches Ouma out of the corner of her eye and notices an odd look of determination on his face. 

Their search yields little, but Ouma seems hesitant to stop when Kaede announces that if there was anything there, it has likely been removed. “Maybe the killer stole it,” Kaede says when Ouma finally gives up.

He still staring hard at the table and says, “I doubt that,” before turning back around towards the door without another word.

Ouma is oddly quiet the whole way back to the dorms. Kaede remembers him falling silent when he was angry at her, but something about his disposition this time feels different. They move through the school and outside to the dorms, Kaede following along easily enough with the promise of removing the handcuffs hovering before her. 

She’s already making plans to go back to ask Tenko about the keys when they enter the building, and Ouma begins climbing the stairs to the girls’ side of the dorms. Kaede immediately stops moving. “I thought we were going to your room?” 

Ouma keeps looking forward and says, “You need to understand a few things first.”

His cryptic answer does little to comfort Kaede, but she walks beside him curiously as they ascend the stairs and he turns towards Yumeno’s now empty room. The door opens easily enough, and before Kaede can ask, he says, “All rooms unlock during an investigation. I already asked Monokuma, and,” he grins back at her, “he knows I could pick the lock anyway.”

Kaede just gives him a skeptical look before they step inside. 

Ouma’s very deliberate about closing the door behind them before flicking on the lights. Kaede blinks a few times, steadying her vision as she surveys the room. Yumeno’s room seems to be reasonably normal with a few trinkets and decorations Kaede would naturally associate with a magician scattered around, and the only odd feature is that the blankets seem to have been pulled off her bed and bundled up on the floor.

Kaede glances to Ouma, and he merely nods towards it, clearly goading her towards something. With hesitant steps, Kaede approaches it and begins to unwrap the blankets. The first thing she notices is that there are hard object hidden inside, and she feels out something small and circular, slowly stripping off the layers of blankets hiding it. 

The blankets come off the first object, and Kaede stares with wide eyes at the EMP grenade in her hands. “Why…” she breathes out. “Why did Yumeno-san have this?”

Ouma says, “Keep going.”

She glances back up to him staring down at her completely stone-faced, and Kaede hurries to uncover the second, much larger and longer object. She’s not nearly as surprised to discover it’s the hammer she remembers Iruma showing her, and she sets aside with a feeling of great unease, which only increases when Kaede realizes there are no other hard objects left to find. 

“Where,” she says, more desperately shifting through the blankets, “Where’s the other EMP grenade?”

“It’s not hard to figure out,” Ouma says dully. 

Kaede’s eyes flicker over his face, searching for anything as she whispers, “The blackout…”

Ouma smiles. “Wow, Akamatsu-chan, you figured it out, and the trial hasn’t even started yet. Though,” he looks at his nails, “this doesn’t really seem like a mystery we should talk about in front of everyone else, does it?”

“Then start answering my questions right now,” Kaede says, staggering to her feet and jabbing one finger into his skinny chest. “Why are these in Yumeno-san’s room? The only people who should know about these are you, me, and Iruma-san.”

“Well, clearly,” he says. “One of us told her. And if it wasn’t you, and Iruma-chan was locked in a room all night and all morning…”

“You gave these to her,” Kaede says firmly. “Which means…” she furrows her brow, deep in thought, “which means… you two planned the blackout…” She presses a hand to her forehead in frustration. “That’s why you knew how long it would last—Iruma-san told you how long the EMP lasts, didn’t she?”

“Correct again,” Ouma smiles. “Now you’re getting somewhere.”

“But,” Kaede’s mind races with questions to ask. “How? I know the EMPs turn off power, but how could they shut down the entire school? How could they turn off the sky!?”

“You, me, and Iruma-chan already know the answer to that, too,” Ouma says. “And that answer is the solution to why Yumeno-chan was killed.”

Kaede blinks at him. “You knew she would be killed?”

“No,” he says blankly. “I didn’t.”

Kaede narrows her eyes at him, searching for anything. “Are you lying again?”

Ouma pauses, and instead of answering her question, her jerks his chin towards Yumeno’s closet. “I’m done talking about Yumeno-chan. But, if you want another clue, look in there.”

With wary eyes still on Ouma, Kaede walks to the closet and pushes the doors open. Inside, bundled up beneath the sets of matching clothes, is another one of Yumeno’s identical outfits, the front of it absolutely coated in dried blood.

Kaede stares at it openmouthed for a moment, then, “Why would this be…?”

Ouma says, “Unfold it,” and Kaede hears the smile in his voice when he says, “another clue awaits.”

She glances at him over her shoulder, and he winks back at her before she sets about the grim task of unfolding the bloody school uniform. In the center of it sits a key covered in sparkling gold glitter. Kaede cautiously picks it up and turns it over in her hands a few times. “This,” she says, “this is the key to the third room on the fourth floor. Angie-san said it had gone missing, but Yumeno-san… Yumeno-san took it?”

“Could be,” Ouma says shrugging. “Now, let me just grab my things, and we can head straight over to my room, Akamatsu-chan.”

Kaede frowns at him, briefly wondering what he means by ‘his things,’ but her question answers itself as he drags her back towards the hammer and remaining EMP grenade, quickly shuffling them back into the blanket and hugging the bundle close to his chest. He nods at the door, and Kaede rolls her eyes as she opens it for him before he starts practically skipping back to his room.

Ouma quickly fishes his key out of his pocket, and his door swings open easily. “Make yourself at home before I kick you out, Akamatsu-chan!” he says merrily 

Kaede steps inside Ouma’s almost absurdly cluttered room, closing the door behind her, and following him to his closet where he deposits the bundle underneath the row of matching straightjackets hanging above.

As Ouma busies himself with that, Kaede looks around in near awe at the sheer amount of stuff piled up in almost every inch of his floor. Her eyes settle on one object in particular. 

“You stole Iruma-san’s drone,” Kaede says, taking a step towards the machine, lying on the ground at the foot of his bed.

“Hmm?” Ouma says, finally looking up. “Oh, yeah. I did.”

Kaede huffs and begins to say, “Why would you…” but her words die as soon as she spies the small piles of photos sitting next to the drone. “These are…”

“The photos Iruma-chan took,” Ouma says. He walks over and easily picks up the first one, turning it towards her. “They’re quite enlightening, aren’t they?”

The photo in his hand shows a near perfect overhead view of the library the day of Amami’s murder and an even more perfect view of the books stacked in the exact pattern to kill him. Kaede pales. “When did you take these?” she asks very quietly.

He hums, absently leafing through the damning photos. “The day before Iruma-chan started whining about the drone being stolen. Guess she didn’t notice the photos being gone, too.”

Kaede stares hard down at him, racking her brain for the right words to say to him. She settles on, “So you know what happened that day, then.”

“I do,” Ouma replies. “But I knew even before I got the photos. A liar like me can easily tell when an amateur’s trying, and Saihara-chan sure did his best, but I could tell before he even opened his mouth. Of course, I also knew before that, too.”

“You’re very smart, I get it,” Kaede hisses. “So what are you going to do? Why are you keeping these—blackmail? Do you want something from me?”

“No,” he answers plainly. “I don’t want anything from a killer like you.”

With that, Kaede finds herself speechless, and Ouma produces another key from his pocket, sticking it into the lock on the handcuffs. They come free, and Kaede brings her hand to her chest protectively. Ouma nonchalantly pulls his own hand free and sets the handcuffs and key aside. Kaede watches him, and says, “Are you going to show these to everyone, then? Expose me?”

Ouma shakes his head. “No—at least not now.” He grins up at her. “Maybe when the time is right, but now I just want you to get out of my face, Akamatsu-chan.”

She stares hard at him for a moment, weighing her next words in whatever battle they’re waging carefully, and finally says, “I don’t know what you think of me, Ouma-kun, but I’m not your enemy.”

Ouma just hums, returning to leafing through the pictures. “Did you say that to Amami-chan, too? Or maybe Saihara-chan?”

Kaede stands firm, refusing to flinch at his words. “I know what I’ve done is unforgivable, but that doesn’t change our current situation. You can hate me and mistrust me as much as you want, but I am still not your enemy.”

“That remains to be seen,” he says. “Now get out.”

Kaede glares at him for a moment longer before letting out a resigned sigh. She walks to the door but finds herself almost involuntarily pausing. She glances back to see Ouma still disinterestedly looking through the photos, and Kaede says, “I don’t know what you think insulting me is going to accomplish, but whatever games you’re playing are only going to result in more people getting hurt. For your sake, I hope you can live with that.”

Ouma stays quiet, perhaps pretending not have heard her, and with a strange, angry bitterness surging through her, Kaede opens his door and slams it shut behind her.

She takes a deep breath to steady herself and moves to walk out of the dorms when the doors slam open. Iruma stomps inside, Kiibo trailing after her, apparently still trying to calm her down.

Iruma’s yelling obscenities about something, and Kaede barely registers what they’re saying when she walks past her, and says, “Iruma-san, Ouma-kun’s the one who took your drone.”

Kaede keeps walking, but she hears Iruma let out a squawk behind her before the doors to the dorm swing shut.

-

Kaede pauses only when she reaches the entrance to the cafeteria, taking in a deep breath to let some of her anger subside before confronting what she knows lies on the other side of the heavy doors.

She pushes them open and finds Tenko as she left her, quietly sitting next to Yumeno’s body, gently holding her lifeless hand. Kaede notes that Shirogane must have left at some point as she makes her way across the near empty room to Tenko’s side.

Staring down at Yumeno’s body the second time, Kaede finds herself at a near loss of what to say. No, she decides, there is nothing to say—nothing one can say when such a horrible incident occurs. With a shaky breath, she says, “Did you find anything?”

Tenko stays quiet a moment longer and reaches up to brush at her eyes. Her voice is still half chocked with tears when she says, “Tenko…” she lets out another breath, “Tenko tried searching Yumeno-san’s body more, and the only thing she found in any of her pockets was that.” 

Tenko points to a small piece of glass and plastic that looks like part of a broken camera lens sitting on the table in front of her. Kaede frowns at it and exchanges an affirming look with Tenko before picking it up to turn over in her hands. “Was there anything else?”

Tenko shakes her head. “No,” she says, voice wavering, and Kaede can tell just how difficult every word is for her. “Even Yumeno-san’s monopad and the key to her room were missing. Tenko thinks… Tenko thinks the killer probably took them.”

“That’s strange,” Kaede says. “But, that also means they had to stash them somewhere, right? If we can find out where, maybe we can discover who did this.”

Tenko looks up at her with hopeful eyes. “Do you have any ideas, Kaede-san?”

“One,” Kaede says. “And I think we can thank Yumeno-san for it.”

Confusion crosses Tenko’s face for a moment before she moves to pat at her pocket and eventually produces the key she had mysteriously discovered on her person that morning. 

Tenko stares at it wordlessly, and Kaede says, “This morning when she hugged you—I think Yumeno-san really wanted to make sure you would have it. Maybe it was in case something happened to her, or maybe because she knew you were someone she could trust.” She places a reassuring hand on Tenko’s shoulder. “Or maybe both.”

Tenko keeps staring at the key and her hand tightens around it, knuckles turning white. “Then Tenko will do everything she can to figure out why Yumeno-san wanted her to have this.”

Kaede says, “I think that’s a good idea, and,” she smiles with the first bit of triumph she’s felt all investigation, “I think I might no where it leads to.”

-

Kaede looks around hurriedly to make sure no one is watching them when they stand just outside Angie’s lab on the fourth floor. With the coast clear, she gestures for Tenko to try the key. Exactly as Kaede assumed, the door opens easily, and the two girls scurry inside, clicking the door shut behind them as silently as they can.

The excitement over their need for stealth fades as soon as they actually begin to look around the room and discover it to be nearly exactly as they remembered it from the day before. Some of the paints appear a little more used or our shuffled together in different spots on the floor, but overall, nothing stands out as changed. Kaede makes a point of searching any areas that could potentially conceal any of the many missing items the killer probably hid somewhere prior to the investigation. Curiously—and to her increasing frustration—her efforts remain fruitless, and she regularly calls out to Tenko to ask the other girl for updates in her search efforts. 

With a feeling of defeat, Kaede approaches Tenko examining a few of the tools Angie likely used to make the wax sculptures. Though the sudden display of knives and sharp artist tools is a little off-putting, none of them appear to have been used on anything other than wax. “Tenko doubts any of these were used in either of the murders.”

“I have to agree,” Kaede says. “I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s certainly not here.”

Tenko nods. “Tenko feels the same way, but,” she pulls the key out of her pocket for a second time. “It was still important to Yumeno-san that Tenko would have this key. And,” she holds it close to her chest, “Tenko still believes there is a reason for that.”

Kaede gives her a sympathetic smile, and over the speakers, an announcement telling them they’re officially out of time begins to play.

Kaede and Tenko exchange worried looks, but Kaede sighs, saying, “I suppose there’s nothing left to do other than do it.”

“Tenko isn’t sure how helpful she’ll be,” she says. “But, she really, really, _really_ wants to find out what happened to Yumeno-san, and… and why she had to die the way she did…”

Kaede knows there’s nothing else to say to that, and she places one comforting hand on Tenko’s shoulder as they begin the walk back down to the elevator landing leading them to the class trial.

-

The others are all already there, and Kaede hears Iruma’s voice screaming at Ouma long before she sees them. 

Ouma, for his part, seems rather bored by the increasingly colorful obscenities being screeched at him and perks up at seeing Kaede and Tenko round the corner into his field of view. “Ooh,” he says. “Looks like we’re all here now, even if one of us is a dirty tattletale.”

Kaede just rolls her eyes at him as Momota approaches, Maki noticeably shadowing him. “Hey,” he says. “I was able to get some shit about the investigation out of Ouma, but it could all be complete bullcrap for all I know. In fact,” he looks back at Ouma happily waving to him, “I think I can guarantee at least half of it fucking is.”

“Right,” says Kaede. “I’ll make sure to go over most of my findings at the start of the trial for everyone, also,” she frowns, fiddling with the brim of her cap, “sorry to ask for this so late, but can you tell me what you were doing during the blackout? I know about most people, but you and…” she looks at Maki who pointedly looks away, “well, I’m missing you and a few others.”

Momota rubs at his chin in thought. “Well, I didn’t fucking notice the power had gone to shit at first since I was sleeping late this morning. Harumaki came banging on my door though probably some time right after it started to check on me, and then Chabashira came running into the dorms a little later.”

“Were you all together the entire time?” Kaede asks.

“No,” says Tenko. “Tenko left shortly after that to keep searching the gardens. She ran into Kiibo-san a few times, but other than that she was alone.”

Momota nods. “I stayed in my room for most of it. I figured if the fucking lights were off anyway, I might as well sleep.”

“Harukawa-san left?” Kaede persists, and she notices Maki stiffen out of the corner of her eye.

“Yeah,” he says. “She said there was something she wanted to check out while the power was off. Came back to get me when they turned back on, but other than that…”

“That’s… very interesting,” Kaede says.

Maki finally speaks up, saying, “The trial hasn’t even started yet. If you want to falsely accuse me of being the killer, you can do it then.”

Clearly having overhead their conversation, Iruma loudly snorts, and says, “‘Course you’re not the fucking killer.” She jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “Every idiot here knows it has to be Ouma.”

Ouma begins to sniffle. “Iruma-chan’s spreading filthy lies about me… I guess it makes sense for a pig like her, but still…”

“All of you,” Hoshi says, deep voice immediately putting an end to all conversations. “All of you just shut up.”

A deeply uncomfortable silence falls over the group again, as the full meaning of why they’re there and what will come next seems to hit them all at once.

The elevator opens its doors, and looking at Hoshi file in alone and without a sound, Kaede finds no motivational speeches or words of encouragement to offer this time. Inside the elevator, Tenko tries to offer her an encouraging smile, and it dawns on Kaede just how red her eyes are and how tired not just her face but entire body looks, worn out through sheer emotional exhaustion. 

Kaede swallows every piece of fear and anger and just plain sadness threatening to rise over her as the elevator doors slide shut, and they begin to move down to yet another trial where Kaede will have to condemn one of her friends to their agonizing death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter chapter than the past few (by which I mean it's only 8k instead of 10k, haha) but I figured this was a reasonable stopping point so the trial can begin in earnest next time! 
> 
> Also, I think now is as reasonable a time as any to mention that at the pace I am moving (aka slow), this story is probably not going to be finished until several months after the English release for V3 comes out, and though I am going to wait to play through it a bit myself to get a feel for various localization choices, I ultimately do want this story to age as well as possible. Basically this means I'm debating making certain edits later on (i.e. Kiibo-> Keebo, potentially Tenko's speech patterns, etc.) but there are still definitely some things I plan on keeping (mostly honorifics). Of course, I definitely want to know if anyone has strong thoughts/opinions and let everyone know I will only make said edits after I've played through some of the localization myself, so this is just a heads up for everyone before I get too embroiled in the trial, haha.
> 
> Also, RandomMunchkin on Ao3 drew fanart for the last chapter, which is amazing! There's a link in the notes of the last chapter, so check it out! Thank you so, so much!


	16. Trial IV

They step into the trial room, and Kaede finds her podium now marked on either sides by matching crossed out portraits of Gonta and Yumeno flanking her. She spies Shinguji’s portrait, bright smears of red rather than an X obscuring his face, and Kaede bites her lip as she prepares herself for what she has to do next. She surveys the room, almost numbly noting that she did most of the investigating, and thus the responsibility of everyone’s lives falls on her. The responsibility of killing one more of their friends falls on her.

Monokuma finishes his explanation that they have all heard too many times, saying, “Now get to arguing! And remember, in the case of super duper special double murders, only the killer of the first victim counts as the blackened.”

“Question,” Ouma says, raising his hand in the air.

Monokuma sighs before biting out, “What? Did I not make myself clear?”

“I don’t think it applies to this case,” Ouma says, “But what happens if someone kills someone, and then someone else kills them? Would the new killer count as the blackened, or would we have to vote for the dead person because they killed first. And if that’s the case, wouldn’t that mean we could just keep—”

Monokuma bears his claws in agitation. “ _If_ and only if such a thing were to occur, then the killer of the first killer would become blackened.”

“Wait,” says Momota, scratching the back of his head. “So I think Ouma’s just trying to fucking confuse us, but if that’s a rule, then what happens if there’s like a third murder or something?”

“Yeah!” says Ouma. “What if—”

“Alright, fine,” Monokuma hisses. “You want an answer: none of that applies here, you hear me! Zip! Squat! Nothing! So stop asking!”

“Which means,” Ouma concludes. “We can assume Yumeno-chan is not the killer.”

“That much is obvious,” Maki says. “It’s high unlikely someone as small as her could have overpowered Gokuhara anyway. Not to mention,” she sighs, crossing her arms, “according to Monokuma’s clarification, even in the ridiculous event that she did manage to kill, Yumeno was clearly murdered herself. The only way to view her in this case is as a victim, plain and simple.”

Ouma says, “Which means Yumeno-chan is innocent! Isn’t that great?”

“Ouma-kun,” Kiibo says. “What exactly are you trying to achieve through this line of questioning?”

“Weeeeell,” he says. “If you think about the fact that Gonta was killed in a room that only Yumeno-chan had the keys to, and if she couldn’t have done it, that means we have a real flesh and blood locked room mystery!” Practically bouncing at his stand, Ouma says, “Isn’t that exciting?”

“Except you can fucking pick locks!” Iruma shouts, jabbing an accusing finger at him. “Don’t even try to lie, you little cocksucking gremlin!”

“Oh?” asks Angie, tilting her head. “Is Kokichi the killer then?”

“It could be a possibility,” Shirogane muses. “Of course, in most mystery games, when there’s seemingly a locked room, it’s usually not as locked as you think it is. Like, the killer only temporarily locked it with glue or something…”

Ouma pouts. “I hate glue…”

“Glue, lube, shit—it doesn’t matter!” Iruma yells. “You’re obviously the fucking killer, so let’s just vote already to kill his scrawny ass!”

“Iruma-san,” Kiibo says sternly. “You need to calm down. Though Ouma-kun is certainly suspicious, it would be rash to jump to voting so soon.”

“Yeah,” says Momota. “I mean, don’t get me wrong—it’d be fucking great if Ouma was the killer—but we have these stupid trials for a reason and shit.”

Iruma just glares, not wilting even under their scolding. “I’m telling you dickless virgins, it doesn’t matter how long and hard or if we go all night arguing back and forth—Ouma’s absolutely the killer!”

“You know,” Ouma says, pressing a finger to his lips. “You’re pushing this awfully hard, Iruma-chan. Guilty conscience?”

Iruma’s gripping the sides of her podium, ready to shout again, when Hoshi’s voice cuts through the room. “Shut up,” he says. “If you’re going to be useless, just shut up.”

Iruma shrinks in on herself then. “Eeeeey! I-I’m just tryin’ to f-find the culprit and shit…”

Maki lets out a sigh, saying, “Hoshi’s right. Your useless yelling is getting us no where.”

“I believe it would be best to first go over a quick summary of what happened this morning,” Kiibo says. “Akamatsu-san, you and Ouma-kun were the first to discover the body this morning correct? And then Yumeno-san’s body later as well? It seems you two would know the most then.”

Kaede hears Maki mumble, “Discovering both bodies—that’s suspicious…”

Kaede straightens her shoulders. “Like Kiibo-kun said, this morning, the first people to discover Gonta-kun’s body were me, Tenko-san, and Ouma-kun. The blackout started immediately after that, in the middle of the body announcement, in fact.”

“Wrong,” says Ouma. “Chabashira-chan found the body, then the announcement went off, _then_ me and Akamatsu-chan found him.”

“So Chabashira found it slightly before you guys?” Momota asks. “Does that matter?”

Tenko furrows her brow. “Tenko did find it first, but nothing changed between then and when Kaede-san came.”

“Hmm,” says Angie. “Maybe Kokichi thinks Tenko’s the culprit?”

“Tenko is not the killer,” she says firmly. “If Ouma-san is implying that she tampered with the crime scene, he is mistaken.”

“Right,” Kaede says. “Besides, I think we can rule out Tenko-san doing anything to disrupt evidence after she found the body—there just wouldn’t have been enough time for her to do anything, and,” she crosses her arms, “the crime scene was setup in a pretty specific way—I think it’s safe to assume the killer did so beforehand.”

“That’s right, that’s right,” says Angie. “The crime scene was super spooky and stuff.”

Shirogane gasps. “W-Wait, I just thought of something! You know how at the crime scene, all the statues except Saihara-kun’s were stabbed? What if that means he came back as a ghost, and—”

“There’s no fucking way that’s what happened!” Momota shouts.

“Ooh, ooh, but what if it did?” Angie asks. “What if Angie’s ritual was a complete success, and Shuuichi is here with us now?”

“And… his ghost is the culprit?” Kaede says, attempting to piece together the absolutely bizarre argument in front of her.

“But doesn’t it make sense?” Shirogane asks. “I mean, the motive was to bring someone back from the dead, and we never really figured out how that was connected to someone being murdered, so what if Angie-san summoned a vengeful spirit?”

Angie presses her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, Angie sure hopes she didn’t. God says Angie’s job is to keep the school safe for people and ghosts alike.”

“Stop fucking talking about this bullshit,” Momota says.

Kiibo fidgets slightly at his stand. “Though it may seem impossible, I believe Shirogane is right in that as long as we consider what the motive behind this case is, we cannot fully rule out the presence of ghosts.”

Kaede frowns and adjusts the brim of her hat as she accepts the fact that she has to handle this issue if there is to be any hope of moving forward in the conversation.

_(Present your Argument)_

“The motive in this case,” Shirogane begins, “was resurrecting someone who died.”

“Most likely suspect is Sighhara, right?” Iruma asks. “‘Cause his was the only statue that didn’t take a sword up the ass?”

“I keep telling you,” Momota says. “There are no ghosts, the ritual is bullshit, and even if you did everything that shitty book said, you wouldn’t fucking summon anything!”

“But God said Angie could use it to bring back someone,” Angie says. “So maybe there is a ghost hanging around!”

“Stop saying that…” Momota says.

Maki physically turns away from her trial stand, saying, “There’s a limit to how much ridiculousness I can take.”

_(BREAK)_

“That’s it,” Kaede says. “Kaito, you’re right—Angie-san never completed the ritual, and Monokuma said we could only resurrect someone if we followed all the steps in the instruction book.”

“That’s the reasoning you’re using for why a ghost can’t be the culprit,” Maki says. “Not the fact that it’s impossible, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot?”

Kaede frowns. “Just telling someone they’re wrong without showing them evidence doesn’t move our argument forward—no matter what we’re talking about.”

“Okay,” Shirogane says. “So does that mean you have evidence that Angie-san plainly didn’t finish the resurrection ritual, Akamatsu-san?”

“I do,” Kaede says. She pauses for a moment to take her backpack off her shoulders and lift the little black book out of it. “Because I have the instruction book.”

Angie gasps. “That’s where that went! Angie wrote down a lot of stuff for herself because God warned her the book would go missing, and one member of her student council would betray her. Angie didn’t think Kaede would be the one to steal it, though.”

Kaede winces slightly. “Ah, well, I did. I thought it was the only way to stop a murder.”

“Good job on that front,” Iruma snorts.

“Do you know what time you took it?” Hoshi asks, pointedly ignoring Iruma’s comment. 

“Last evening,” Kaede says. “It was before we went to help Yumeno-san rehearse from her show. I… don’t think the timing has anything to do with the murders, though.”

Hoshi shrugs. “If it had been this morning or something… maybe, but,” he pulls his hat down a little farther. “It doesn’t matter.”

Kaede nods. “I get your point. But, I think we can safely conclude that ghosts had nothing to do with this incident.”

“But wait, friends!” Ouma says. 

Momota almost automatically bites back, “We’re not your friends.”

Ouma keeps going. “A motive is still a motive! And if Akamatsu-san had the motive during the murders, doesn’t that make her suspicious?”

“Kaede-san is not the culprit,” Tenko says sharply.

“You can blindly stick up for her as much as you want,” Maki says. “But Ouma’s right. Of everyone here, Akamatsu had the biggest incentive to try to bring someone back. Not only that,” she continues, “but she also joined Yonaga’s student council who intended to resurrect someone, and then stole the book from them.” She turns her glare to Kaede. “My guess is Yonaga planned to bring back someone other than Saihara, and Akamatsu decided to take matters into her own hands.”

“That’s not what happened,” Kaede says, standing her ground. 

Ouma begins sniffling. “Wow, Harukawa-chan is so mean. I’m glad she’s not mad at me…”

“What happened,” Kaede continues, “is that I took the book to stop anyone else from using. Tenko-san is my witness. We were together when I took it and spent the rest of the day together.”

“That is correct,” Tenko says. 

“I’m afraid I do not think that is sufficient for an alibi,” Kiibo says. “Gonta-kun’s murder occurred at midnight—were you still together then?”

Kaede doesn’t miss a beat, immediately countering with, “We were. Tenko-san was worried about Yumeno-san’s show the next day, so she stayed in my room.”

Tenko blinks for a moment at her lie, but manages to back her up with a stuttered, “Th-That is also correct. Tenko… did not want to mention it due to… due to Iruma-san’s comments last time.”

Iruma squawks. “I only said what was fucking true!”

Ouma turns to Kaede, raising an eyebrow, and to her surprise he says, “Hmm, now that I think about it—I did see Chabashira-chan go into Akamatsu-chan’s room with her last night. I thought they were staying up to plot evil things, so I didn’t really talk to them.”

Kaede regards him carefully before saying, “I didn’t know Ouma-kun was watching, but that is what happened.”

Ouma grins. “I’m always watching.”

“So in conclusion,” Momota says. “Kaede and Chabashira have alibis for Gonta’s death, and they had the motive with them, so… did the killer even fucking care about the motive?” 

“Well,” Shirogane says. “If no one summoned any ghosts, then I think we can only assume that it didn’t, right?”

“I think,” Kaede says. “We’re being too literal with the motive. We’ve talked about this a few times, but returning one of our dead friends to us by doing a simply ritual—that’s not really a reason to kill, is it?”

“No,” Hoshi says darkly. “But people kill for all kinds of stupid reasons.”

Shirogane nods. “I hate to say it, but Hoshi-kun’s right—I once played a game and they said, um, ‘there are as many reasons to kill as there are people in the world.’”

“Oh, Tsumugi,” Angie says. “God thinks that’s weirdly dark coming from you.”

Shirogane quickly waves her hands. “Ah, but just because you play violent games doesn’t mean you’re a violent person. I mean, I can tell the difference between fiction and reality.”

“Okay, so, anyway, where does all that fucking get us?” Momota asks. “Is it, like, the opposite or something? Someone killed because they wanted to stop anyone from being resurrected?”

“After a killing,” Maki says. “It is safe to say a motive effectively ends, and Monokuma presents the next one. If someone wanted to preemptively stop the ritual, then they very well could have resorted to murder.”

“But,” Angie says. “Who would want to do that? God says everyone wanted to see our old friends again.” 

Iruma snorts. “Well, who was the one person scared absolutely shitless at the idea of ghosts crawling up his ass?”

Momota yells, “Shut the fuck up! I’m not the killer!”

“Yup,” Ouma says. “My beloved Momota-chan was super extra scared, but he knew I would protect him from the ghosts.”

“I’m getting really fucking tired of you,” Momota says.

Hoshi lets out a sigh. “If it matters, Momota never showed up to the crime scene this morning. Don’t know if that makes him more suspicious or less, but,” he shrugs. “That’s what happened.”

“Yeah!” says Momota. “I never fucking set foot on the fourth floor after we finished exploring it and shit!”

Kiibo thinks for a moment before saying, “Is there anyone else who can confirm that? It would be highly unlikely someone spent the night of the murder with you like Akamatsu-san, but if you have anyone who—”

“I saw him,” Maki says. “He comes to bang on my door every morning and every night.”

Angie tilts her head. “Oh? Angie doesn’t get it. How does that make Kaito not the killer?”

“He’s not the killer,” Maki states again. “He was scared of the ritual and likely didn’t even know where or when it was supposed to take place.”

“Yeah!” says Momota. “Except, uh, except for the me being fucking scared part, but yeah!”

Kaede frowns, and Ouma voices her thoughts aloud. “Telling lies won’t impress me, Momota-chan,” he says, placing a finger to his lips. 

“What are you talking about?” Momota asks.

In a less accusatory tone, Kaede says, “I don’t think you’re the killer, but, well everyone except for maybe Harukawa-san knew Angie-san’s plans for the resurrection before the murder. I told you all myself at dinner.”

“Then he forgot,” Maki says. “And if that’s your reason for suspecting him that means everyone is equally suspicious.”

“Ah, Harukawa-san,” Shirogane says. “I don’t mean to pry, but why are you arguing for Momota-kun? Do you know something else about the murder?”

Maki goes silent for a moment. Then, “If you all haven’t forgotten, Momota was also injured. Choosing to kill someone like Gokuhara while hurt would have been incredibly stupid even for him.”

“Oh, you didn’t answer my question…” Shirogane mumbles sadly.

Kaede thinks for a moment, then, “I don’t know if Harukawa-san is choosing to hide information for us again or not, but I do think the choice of Gonta-kun as the victim can tell us something about the killer.”

“What does that mean?” Hoshi asks.

“I mean,” Kaede says, “The killer didn’t choose Gonta-kun at random, and they were very deliberate about how they contacted him. And I think I know exactly what evidence proves it.”

_(Present your Argument)_

Hoshi begins, saying, “The killer… they purposefully lured out Gonta specifically…”

“I really don’t fucking no anything about that,” Momota says.

“What kind of fucking brain dead moron,” Iruma chimes in, “targets someone like big dick? You’d get your fucking head ripped off if you threatened him!”

“If you threatened him…” Hoshi mutters.

“Seriously,” Momota says. “What the fuck are you guys talking about? Ouma didn’t tell me shit about this.”

“Oh?” says Ouma. “Guess I left this part out. Oh, well! I’m sure Akamatsu-chan will figure it out for you!”

Maki sighs. “I think Momota’s confusion is proof enough that he’s not the culprit.”

_(BREAK)_

“Hoshi-kun knows exactly what I’m about to say,” Kaede says, “because on Gonta-kun’s body, he found a note from the killer threatening him into going to the fourth floor at midnight. It was printed out, so unfortunately we can’t use handwriting to figure out who wrote it, but it’s definitely important evidence in how the killer communicated with him.”

With almost no emotion in his voice, Hoshi says, “The note said I would be killed if he didn’t show.” He looks to Kaede, an unreadable expression on his face, and says, “If you’re hiding that fact to protect me, knock it off.”

Kaede can’t help but wince at his words. “Ah, s-sorry.” 

“Okay, but, but,” Angie says. “Angie knew about the note and stuff, but how does that prove Kaito’s not the killer?”

“Yeah,” Iruma says. “I mean, closet case over here is dumb as fuck, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t figure out how to use one of Monokuma’s shitty printers.”

“Hey!” Momota shouts. “I know how to use a fucking printer! I-I’m still not the killer, though!”

“You’re not helping your case,” Maki reprimands. “And the point Akamatsu’s trying to make is that the killer needed to go through with creating a note in the first place. Going to the trouble of printing out a threatening note is risky—if someone had noticed, their plan would have been ruined before it began.”

Kiibo frowns. “I am afraid I am still not seeing the connection. Do you mean to say Momota-kun would not go to such a risk?”

“He wouldn’t need to,” Kaede says. “Kaito’s someone Gonta-kun would have probably just followed to the fourth floor if he asked.”

“I get it,” Hoshi says quietly. “The fact that there’s a note at all… it means the killer wasn’t someone he trusted.”

“Hmm,” says Angie. “But there’s something Angie doesn’t understand. If the killer knew Gonta had a note from them, why would they leave it on his body?”

Maki shrugs. “Untrained killers make mistakes. Most criminals are caught because something went wrong with their crime.”

Angie doesn’t seem satisfied with her answer, and goes on, “But Angie still doesn’t get it. God thinks that would be a pretty silly mistake.”

“Well,” Kaede says. “Like I said before, the note was pretty anonymous. Even if the killer did know Gonta-kun brought it with him, they probably assumed it couldn’t be traced back to them. Angie-san, you remember looking at login records in the computer room, right? Even the information about when they used the computers to do it was hidden, so they were pretty safe in the event that someone would discover it later.”

“Sooo,” says Momota. “Does that mean I’m good now? And we can actually, like, go back to fucking talk about the case and shit?”

“Though I do not believe the presence of a threatening note alone is enough to remove all of our suspicions,” Kiibo says. “I think for now we should set aside random accusations and discuss the case at length without the bias of a specific suspect.”

“Hmm, okay, I guess Kiiboy has a point,” Ouma says. “Soooo, Akamatsu-chan, why don’t you clear up one last thing for us first? What,” he smiles brightly at her, “is the real truth behind the motive this time?”

Kaede looks at him, standing only one podium away from her, and with her eyes on him, she chooses her words carefully, saying, “Tenko-san and I discussed this awhile ago before the murders, and we came to the conclusion that the goal of this motive was to create conflict and get us to divide ourselves.”

A brief silence falls over everyone, and Kaede swallows before continuing. “The killing game keeps going because… because it’s easy to think everyone’s against you or that you need to do something drastic.” She reaches up to straighten Saihara’s hat. “The motive of bringing someone back from the dead played into our heightened emotions. People having strong reactions and clashing with each other was almost inevitable with something like that hanging over us…”

Momota curses. “Damnit. And we played right into that from the start, didn’t we?”

Hoshi says. “I see now… with the way things were going, Gonta had…” he lets out a sigh, “he had every reason to believe that note…”

Shirogane hugs one of her arms. “That means that we’re all to blame, huh? Since that kind of tense atmosphere couldn’t have been created without all of us…”

Kaede nods. “There are still a few things I don’t understand about the killer’s motives, but mostly I want to know if they used the tensions between us as a cover for their crime or if they did what they did because they thought they were protecting themselves. But either way,” she shakes her head. “This crime is still unforgivable.”

“But,” Tenko says suddenly, voice cutting through the courtroom. “But what about Yumeno-san? Why… why did she die?”

Tenko’s words seem to tangibly linger in the air, immediately stopping all conversations in their tracks. For all she had to say only moments ago, Kaede finds herself suddenly speechless and unable to even look at what she images is the pure misery on Tenko’s face.

In the tense silence, Ouma’s the one to answer her. “Because she tried to fight back.”

Kaede’s attention snaps to him. Tenko says, “Ouma-san, what are you talking about? What do you know about Yumeno-san’s death?”

Ouma stays quiet, and Momota hazards a guess about his cryptic words. “Are you saying she fought with her killer or something?”

“Maybe,” Ouma says. “I don’t know—it was real dark, and I was with Akamatsu-chan the whole time. So I don’t know anything.”

Iruma snarls. “You shit for brains idiots still think he’s not the fucking killer?”

“Iruma-san,” Kiibo says gently. “There is still more to discuss.” He frowns. “And for the case of Yumeno-san’s death, Ouma-kun is one of the few people who has a solid alibi.”

Kaede nods. “That… is true. I think I asked everyone where they were during the blackout, and with the exception of Ouma-kun and myself, I think everyone else had periods of time when they were alone.” 

“And since there’s no time of death on the fucking Monokuma File,” Momota says. “That means anyone could have done it, yeah?”

Angie raises a hand. “God told Angie to protect all of her student council members, so she would never hurt Himiko!”

Maki rolls her eyes. “Anyone can say something like that.”

“But it’s true,” Angie insists. “And Angie always listens to what God has to say, and he said to make sure everyone in the student council stayed safe.”

“Anyway,” Maki says, clearly ignoring her. “It’s suspicious that Ouma and Akamatsu are the only people who have alibis.” She crosses her arms. “And Akamatsu seems to be the only person who has an alibi for both murders, since Ouma, of all people, confirmed it.”

Kaede frowns at her. “Harukawa-san, what are you trying to imply?”

“Tenko believes the fact that Kaede-san has alibis for both incidents means she is the least suspicious person, not the most,” Tenko argues.

Maki shakes her head. “Think for yourself for once. This entire situation is entirely too convenient for Akamatsu. She has a confirmed liar vouching for her for both murders, and was one of the people to discover both bodies.” Maki turns her dead eyed stare to Kaede. “I believe there is no chance she isn’t involved in this somehow.”

Kaede turns to meet her glare. “Hey, Harukawa-san, aren’t you like the thief who accuses everyone else of being a thief? Just because you think about killing all the time doesn’t mean—”

“You automatically suspect me because of my talent,” Maki says. “But my being an assassin doesn’t mean no one else here isn’t capable of killing. It doesn’t mean you’re not the killer.”

Kaede opens her mouth to argue back again when Momota beats her to it, saying, “Oi, Harumaki. I thought we decided we were done randomly accusing people and shit.”

Maki whips her head to him but remains stonily silent. Momota presses on. “Maybe Kaede does know something, or maybe all of the shit you just said is a coincidence. But we can’t talk about that stuff if you just back her into a corner, and I believe,” he slams his fists together, “there’s no way you or Kaede would try and kill anyone here.”

Ouma laughs. “Man, Momota-chan, you sure know how to pick ‘em.”

“Shut up,” he says. “I’m trying to make a fucking point here.”

Maki remains quiet a moment longer, then, with a sigh, “Fine. I’ll drop my accusations for now. Just,” she turns away from him. “Just don’t let yourself fall for a lie because it’s more convenient than the truth.”

Momota grins. “Will do, Harumaki.”

She scowls. “I told you to stop calling me that.”

“Ah, anyway,” says Shirogane. “Since we’ve plainly cleared up the killer’s motive, I’d like to ask a question.” She folds her hands in front of her, politely asking, “If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to know why the crime scene on the fourth floor was arranged the way it was… it was pretty disturbing when I went up there.”

Kiibo nods. “That is a good question, Shirogane-san. Angie-san and I investigated the statues alongside Akamatsu-san and Ouma-kun, however we did not find anything that pointed to why they were set up like that.”

“Yup, yup!” says Angie. “We looked them all over and didn’t find anything!” She puffs out her cheeks. “But God still says whoever defaced Angie’s art should come forward.”

Iruma says, “Like hell that’s gonna happen. Whoever spit-roasted the statues has to be the killer. And,” Kaede can physically see her gaining confidence, “they probably made ‘em that way to hide the murder weapon.”

Kaede furrows her brow, thinking intently as the others begin to talk.

_(Present your Argument)_

“At the crime scene,” Kiibo says, “the killer moved the statues there and stabbed three of them with swords.”

“God says whoever did should just confess,” Angie says. “Angie will only be slightly really mad.”

“Obviously,” Iruma says, “the killer penetrated Angie’s crappy sex dolls to hide the murder weapon.”

“One of the swords was the murder weapon,” Kiibo echoes. “Angie-san and I found no bloodstains on them—could one of them still have been used to kill Gonta-kun?”

“Th-They washed off the blood first!” Iruma says.

Momota chimes in, “Wouldn’t a sword sticking out of a statue be really fucking obvious? I dunno if the killer would do that.”

“The—the k-killer thought we would think that,” Iruma says, quickly unraveling. “A-And so they assumed we would dismiss it, s-so that’s why they did it!”

“That seems… needlessly complex,” Kiibo says. “Maybe we’re on the wrong track, and none of the swords were used.”

Angie huffs. “God is still waiting for someone to confess.”

_(BREAK)_

“Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “I think that’s it—none of the swords for Yumeno-san’s magic show were used.”

Kiibo frowns. “I was mostly referring to the ones in Angie-san’s statues, but you believe none of them were used?”

“Oh, come on,” Iruma says. “I was up to my fucking tits in swords in that room, and you’re saying the killer just ignored all of them?”

“That’s right,” Kaede says. “From the beginning, the murder weapons in both Gonta-kun and Yumeno-san’s cases have been bothering me. I’m still not sure about what was used to kill Yumeno-san, but if Gonta-kun was killed in the box where we found him for Yumeno-san’s magic show, then it would have been impossible for the culprit to use one of the swords to kill him.”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Maybe I’m simply misunderstanding, but isn’t that box designed to put swords through?”

“It is,” Tenko says. “Last night… Tenko helped Yumeno-san rehearse her magic tricks—when we used the box Gonta-san was killed in, Yumeno-san explained that it was completely safe.”

Kaede nods. “That’s right, and when we were moving the stuff for Yumeno-san’s tricks up to the fourth floor, I actually looked over that one personally before she explained how it worked.”

“Ah,” says Ouma. “So you’re saying Yumeno-chan’s tricks aren’t actually magic, I see.”

“That’s not the point here,” Kaede says. “The point is that that box is purposefully safeguarded to prevent what happened to Gonta-kun from happening to anyone using it.”

“That is correct,” Tenko says. “Tenko experienced it several times first hand, and she was never harmed.”

Kiibo says, “I’m not sure I understand. Isn’t the purpose of the box to put swords through it?”

“It is,” Kaede says. “But it’s setup that the holes in it have different widths. For Yumeno-san’s trick, she would use a mix of thin fake swords and thick real swords and the only holes wide enough for the real swords to go through were setup to direct them at angles away from the person inside.”

“Well, maybe the killer just fucking forced one of the real ones through or something?” Iruma says. “Like, even if you’ve got a small opening, you can still—”

“Stop,” Hoshi says, voice harsh. “Nobody wants to here it.”

Iruma starts sniveling. “Eeeey! I-I’m j-just trying to help…”

“You’re not,” Hoshi says. “And there were no signs of damage on the box—I would’ve noticed if there were splinters or something when I moved him.”

“Okay, but what does all of that mean?” Momota asks. “Did the killer use something else to kill him?” 

“Unfortunately,” Kiibo says. “I was unable to find anything else that seemed like it could have been the murder weapon at the crime scene in my investigation.”

“Hmm, that’s right, that’s right,” Angie says. “And Angie remembers the Monokuma File says Gonta was stabbed, right?”

“Which would point to the murder weapon still being one of Yumeno’s swords,” Maki says. “It’s the most logical answer, isn’t it?”

“I think so…” Shirogane says. “Um, but if people don’t mind, maybe summarizing what we think happened to Gonta-kun will show something wrong with our thinking?”

Kaede nods. The few clues she knows she and Ouma know alone circle her mind, but staring out over her classmates, she decides to wait, wary of drawing something out—wary of all the mysteries still unanswered. She catches Ouma looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, and she adjusts her hat to block him out. She says, “I think that would be for the best.”

“Yeah!” says Momota, completely blind to her internal struggle. “If we all work fucking together, I’m sure we can figure it out and beat the culprit!”

“Ooh,” says Ouma. “And then maybe the power of friendship will show us an exit and we can all leave together, and hold hands and—”

“Shut up!” Momota shouts. “Alright, we can all work together except for you!”

Ouma starts sniffling. “Momota-chan… you’re going to make me cry…”

“Um, anyway,” Shirogane says. “Maybe we should start talking as a group now?”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Last night what happened,” Shirogane says. “Is the killer sent Gonta-kun a threatening note.”

“He was probably in his lab,” Hoshi says quietly. “That was the last place I saw him that night…”

“So then Gonta went up to the fourth floor!” Angie says. “And went into the middle room with the killer?”

“And then…” Tenko frowns. “Gonta-san just stood in the box for Yumeno-san’s sword trick?”

“Maybe the killer told him they were going to rehearse for Yumeno-san’s magic show…” Shirogane says.

“And the culprit took the opportunity to stab him,” Tenko says. “With… something. Yumeno-san’s swords are innocent, though!”

“None of that makes sense,” Hoshi says. “If they threatened him, he wouldn’t just stand in some place that was blatantly dangerous.”

“Huh?” says Angie. “But isn’t that were Gonta was killed?”

“And then the killer did something with the murder weapon,” says Shirogane. “I think…”

_(BREAK)_

“Hoshi-kun, that’s it,” says Kaede. “I think there’s a good chance that Gonta-kun was killed somewhere else and moved later.”

Angie gasps. “Moving Gonta? The killer must be really, really strong!”

“Maybe,” says Maki. “But if the body was moved, the killer would have had all night to do it.”

“So they took breaks in moving the body?” Angie asks. “God thinks that isn’t very efficient.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” says Iruma. “Back the fuck up—if big dick wasn’t shanked in pancake tits’s death trap, then where the fuck was he killed!?”

Ouma hums. “It seems Iruma-chan doesn’t know even though she has all the evidence…” he pouts, looking down sadly. “I guess she really is an idiot.”

“I-I’m j-just testing all of you!” Iruma shouts. “I know _exactly_ what happened!”

Kiibo seems to be ignoring their exchange, lost in thought, and he says aloud, “The only other logical place I can think of would be…” he frowns. “Under the floor?”

Iruma jumps. “Wh-Wh-WHAT!?”

“Didn’t you just fucking say you knew what happened?” Momota asks.

“Under the—!” Iruma flails wildly. “I was under the fucking floor!”

“Oh, that’s right, that’s right,” Angie says. “Maybe that means Miu knows something!”

Ouma places a finger to his lips. “Maybe it means she’s the killer.”

“Y-You!” Iruma thrusts a finger in his direction. “You’re the whole fucking reason I was in that shit hole in the first place!”

Momota huffs. “I’m guessin’ Ouma left that part outta his explanation. Anyone wanna fill me in?”

Maki adds, “Preferably anyone who is not Iruma.”

“Fuck you!” Iruma shouts. “I’m the victim here!”

Kaede sighs. “When we were investigating, Kiibo-kun pulled up some floorboards that were cut loose, and we found Iruma-san under the floor between the middle room and the ritual room. Apparently,” she shoots a glare in Ouma’s direction, “Ouma-kun tricked her into locking herself in the ritual room last night. Iruma-san was missing for most of the investigation because she was trapped under the floor.”

“In the room,” Ouma corrects with a huff. “Iruma-chan crawled under the floor like a cockroach all on her own.”

“Cockroach!?” Iruma repeats. “S-So I’m a fucking cockroach now? J-Just like a bug u-under your feet?” 

She begins to sweat, face flushing pink, and Kiibo hesitantly says, “Iruma-san?”

“I, um, I don’t think I’d ask if I were you, Kiibo-kun,” Shirogane advises.

“Hey, wait,” says Momota. “I think I got something.”

“I doubt it,” Ouma says. “Momota-chan’s about as smart as Iruma-chan…”

Tenko intervenes before anyone can start yelling at him. “Momota-san, please do not engage with his insults and state what you think. If it is useless, we will tell you after you have said it.”

“Thanks for the fucking vote of confidence,” he says rolling his eyes. “Alright, so this probably isn’t related to what happened to Gonta, but if Iruma was stuck under the floor all morning, doesn’t that mean she’s got an alibi for, like, the entire blackout?”

“She does…” Kaede says, suddenly realizing something. “Which means the only people who couldn’t have killed Yumeno-san are me, Iruma-san, and Ouma-kun…” she stares at him as Ouma smiles back at her, almost daring her to put the pieces together. “Because Ouma-kun trapped Iruma-san upstairs and handcuffed himself to me…”

Tenko adds, “When Tenko and Kaede-san went to the fourth floor this morning, Ouma-san was already there. He immediately went about handcuffing himself to Kaede-san and claimed he did not have the key.”

“Oh,” says Angie, “did someone steal Kokichi’s keys, too?”

“No,” Kaede says. “Because Ouma-kun lied about that. When he finally took the handcuffs off, it turned out that he had the key with him the whole time.”

“So he fucking did it for fun?” Momota asks. 

“Wait,” Maki says. “You just said Ouma had the keys with him—doesn’t that mean you could have separated at any time?”

“I only found out he was hiding the keys later,” Kaede says. “And we can both vouch for each other that we were together the entire time.”

“As if Ouma’s word means anything,” Maki says. “The point is—neither of you have alibis for Yumeno’s murder, and the fact that you lied is suspicious.”

“I didn’t lie!” Kaede says. 

Tenko nods. “That’s right. There is absolutely no way Kaede-san would lie, and there is no way she would ever hurt Yumeno-san! Tenko believes in her and will fight for her, no matter what.”

“But can you be sure she’s not the killer?” Angie asks, expression suddenly dark. 

Tenko looks taken aback. “What?”

“Hey, Tenko,” Angie says. “God thinks it’s super nice that you believe in Kaede, but what if she really did kill Himiko or Gonta, you know? If you keep believing in her then, won’t we all die here?”

Without hesitation, Tenko says, “Tenko would rather die than stop believing in her friends. Tenko knows… Tenko knows that someone here murdered Yumeno-san… and that she is never coming back, but hating and mistrusting everyone isn’t the answer. Even if horrible things happen, Tenko will still believe in her friends, and she will do everything that she can to protect them.”

Kaede finds herself near speechless, and every lie she’s told thus far twists in her stomach. She breathes out, “Tenko-san…”

Tenko says, “Kaede-san is someone who learns from her mistakes and wants to move forward—killing someone and sacrificing everyone is completely out of the question for her.”

Ouma regards her impassioned words coolly, and Kaede feels a brief rush of fear when he opens his mouth. But he says, “Akamatsu-chan’s not the culprit. If you think either of us would lie for each other, you’re pretty stupid, Harukawa-chan.”

Maki turns a gaze of pure death on him. “Do you want to be killed?”

Ouma shrugs blandly. “If you want to be executed.”

Maki seems on the verge of physically leaving her podium to attack him, when Momota cuts in, “Alright, alright—everyone calm the hell down.” He runs a hand through his hair, mumbling, “Why the fuck do I have to be the levelheaded one?”

Kiibo decides to refocus the conversation. “Ah, Akamatsu-san, if you not mind me asking this now, earlier you seemed to realize something about Yumeno-san’s death, correct?”

“I… did,” Kaede answers warily, fiddling with the brim of Saihara’s hat as she debates what she can actually tell them. “Ah, it’s… a bit complicated to explain.”

Iruma snorts. “We’re at a fucking trial for a reason—spit it out, blimp tits.”

Kaede glares at her. “I was just thinking about why she was killed. I think it’s safe to say that almost everyone knew that someone else had been killed, even if they didn’t know who, during the blackout.”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “I remember hearing part of the body announcement playing right before the lights went out.”

“So the question is,” Kaede says. “Why would someone—the culprit or anyone else—kill a second person?”

Maki seems to take a pause in her accusations to consider the question, saying, “It is true that a second killing creates more evidence that can be used to track down the culprit. Doing so is inadvisable unless absolutely necessary.”

“So the killer thought it was necessary to bump her off?” Iruma asks. “What was she a witness or something?”

Kaede considers this for a moment. “I think… that Yumeno-san was involved somehow in Gonta-kun’s death, but she was killed… probably for unrelated reasons.”

Angie blinks. “Huh? Himiko was involved in Gonta’s death?”

“I’d like to hear more about that as well,” Hoshi says darkly.

Ouma chirps, “Then let’s all talk about it! C’mon! Some of you are dead weight, so put some effort into it! Quick one of you figure out the proof that Yumeno-chan was involved with Gonta’s death before Akamatsu-chan!”

Kaede just rolls her eyes as the others begin to talk.

_(Present your Argument)_

“How the fuck,” Iruma says, “Am I supposed to know shit about that!? I was under the floor the whole goddamn time!”

“I investigated under the floor before I became distracted by Iruma-san,” Kiibo says. “I believe the major thing of note other than Iruma-san’s presence there, was the large amount of blood.”

“We said some shit about Gonta bein’ killed under the floor, right?” Momota says. “Maybe Yumeno was killed down there, too?”

Hoshi shakes his head. “Impossible. I was there for almost the entire blackout—never saw her.”

Angie gasps. “Did the killer go after Himiko during the blackout because she saw something at the crime scene?”

“Then they would’ve killed her that night,” Maki asks. “Her time of death was during the blackout. If you even bothered to read the Monokuma File, you should know that.”

“Yumeno-san’s death sounds so horrible,” Shirogane says, hugging herself. “Being strangled… what a horrible way to die…”

Quietly, Tenko says, “her killer likely did it because it would not leave bloodstains. If they had run into someone during the blackout while covered in blood… then there would be no doubt what they had done…”

Ouma sighs. “You’re all useless. Just tell ‘em, Akamatsu-chan.”

“I was under the floor,” Iruma mumbles. “What do you fucking want from me?”

_(BREAK)_

“The bloodstain,” Kaede says. “That’s the clue that Yumeno-san was at the scene of the crime and probably that she touched Gonta-kun’s body at some point.”

“What?” Hoshi breathes out. 

“The Monokuma File said that she had no injuries other than those to her neck, which wouldn’t have caused her to bleed,” Kaede says. “But when we were investigating her body, we noticed a spot of blood behind one of her ears.”

Ouma pouts. “ _I_ noticed it.”

“My point,” Kaede says, “is that if that blood doesn’t belong to Yumeno-san…”

“It was Gonta-san’s…” Tenko says quietly.

“Okay,” says Momota. “But how does blood get behind someone’s fucking ear?”

“I think she got drenched in it,” Kaede says. “During the investigation, Ouma-kun and I went to Yumeno-san’s room. There… wasn’t much there,” she says, “but in her closet, we found a change of her clothes that were soaked with blood.”

Kiibo nods. “I think I understand. If almost her entire body was covered with blood, she likely washed it off and missed a spot.”

“Oh,” Shirogane says. “Maybe that’s why parents always tell their children to wash behind their ears…”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “Chabashira’s gonna get fucking pissed at me for saying this, but Yumeno was covered in Gonta’s blood at some point and the murder happened in a room she was hanging out in last night? Are we sure she’s not the killer?”

“I already confirmed she wasn’t with Monokuma,” Ouma says, puffing his cheeks out. “Geeze, Momota-chan, you never listen to me.”

“God says Monokuma might have lied to protect her,” Angie says. “Sometimes he does things like that even though God doesn’t appreciate it.”

“Why would he protect a culprit who’s dead?” Maki says. “Monokuma just wants his game to be interesting—I doubt executing a corpse would fit that description.”

Ouma looks near ready to throw a fit, stamping his tiny foot chanting, “No, no, no! Come on! Think about Akamatsu-chan and Chabashira-chan’s story from earlier.”

Momota frowns. “When they found the body? The fuck does that have to do with Yumeno?”

Kiibo says, “Yumeno-san wasn’t there, correct? So according to Akamatsu-san’s testimony, the people who discovered Gonta-kun’s body were Chabashira-san, Ouma-kun, and Akamatsu-san, herself.”

“Iruma-san was also apparently there,” Tenko volunteers. “Though we did not know that at the time.”

“Yeah,” says Iruma. “And I didn’t see shit ‘til I woke up.”

Kaede pinches the bridge of her nose. “Iruma-san, I don’t think you’re the killer, but I still can’t believe you just took a nap.”

“I already told you, it’s nice and dark and shit down there!” Iruma says. “And I wouldn’t have fucking done it if I knew there was a corpse just lying around.”

“Right, so,” says Ouma. “Iruma-chan doesn’t know anything like usual, so she didn’t find the body, but who did?”

“Tenko-san did,” Kaede says. “After she discovered it, the body announcement went off.”

Maki’s head snaps to her. “Wait. You weren’t all together when you found the body?”

“No,” Kaede says. “Ouma-kun and I were in a different room. I think we already went over that Tenko-san was alone with it for a few seconds.”

“And Tenko did nothing to disturb the crime scene,” she answers. 

Maki mutters to herself, “So that’s what Ouma’s getting out. Monokuma,” she turns to address the bear. “I have a question.”

“Hmm?” he asks. “What is it now? More technicalities that I’ve already explained that need clearing up?”

“Just answer me,” she says. “The rule for the body announcement is that three or more people need to discover a corpse, correct? Does the killer count as one of those people?”

“Sometimes they do,” Monokuma says. “And sometimes they don’t! I make the call to keep things as fair as a bear can make them!”

Maki glares at him, but says, “Fine. But either way, two people discovered Gokuhara’s body before Chabashira. And I think we’ve confirmed one of them has to be Yumeno.”

“Yumeno-san…” Tenko breathes out. “She—why didn’t she say anything? She was acting strange this morning, was it because…” Tenko presses her hands to her face. “Why didn’t she say anything…”

“Ah, so,” Shirogane says hesitantly. “Does that mean that the people Monokuma’s counting for the body discovery are Chabashira-san, Yumeno-san, and one other person who might be the killer?”

Momota runs a hand over his face. “If they’re the killer, I get it if they kept quiet, but if they’re not, does that mean two fucking people found a corpse and said nothing?”

Iruma slams both her hands on her podium. “I told you! I fucking told you!” she jabs a finger in Ouma’s direction. “One in the fucking morning, and _he’s_ prancing around the fourth floor like the goddamn sugar plum fairy!”

Ouma doesn’t respond, and Kaede looks at him searchingly as she says, “Ouma-kun was already on the fourth floor when Tenko-san and I arrived. It was like he was waiting for us…”

Hoshi stares at him with dead eyes. “Iruma said the door to the room he trapped her in was already open, which means he was able to pick the locks she sent up.”

“And that would explain the locked room, too,” Shirogane mumbles.

“Ooh!” says Angie. “And the threatening note! Gonta probably didn’t trust Kokichi anymore after the bug appreciation party incident!”

“Also,” Momota says. “This is just me guessing—but doesn’t stabbing the statues with swords sound like the kind of shit Ouma would do just to mess with us?”

Maki says, “The reason why he handcuffed himself to Akamatsu before the blackout finally makes sense. He did it so he’d be one of the only people with an alibi for Yumeno’s death.” 

Kiibo frowns. “That would mean Ouma-kun would have had to have known the blackout would occur and that Yumeno-san would be killed during it.”

“Maybe he set that up, too,” Hoshi says. “If Yumeno was a witness, maybe her death was some pre-setup trap or something he could activate without having to actually be there.”

Angie hums. “Kokichi does like playing pranks—God says it would make sense for him to know how to set something like that up…”

Iruma stands looking more triumphant than ever, and slams her hands on her podium in time with her words. “I. Fucking. Told. You.”

Ouma remains silent, even as his podium moves to the center of the room for everyone to level their accusations at him. In the eye of the storm, he seems completely calm. 

Kaede stares hard at the back of his head, wandering what could possibly be going through his mind as the other continue to condemn him into whatever grave he’s made for himself. The anger and bitterness she had felt towards him only moments before the trial had begun fades away as she keeps watching him, his every action during the investigation running through her mind. 

Were the words he said and the things he did actions of a killer? Looking back, his hand had guided almost every part of the investigation, but. She bites her lip. She had done the same thing only two days after the game’s beginning. 

While Kaede struggles, Ouma seems almost bored and interrupts Iruma’s tirade against him to say, “So—this is a rather convenient conclusion to come to, isn’t it? I doubt this means anything to any of you, but I have to wonder what happens to the game if I die here. I’ve certainly made enough enemies with enough people—one person in particular—that there’s a chance things could fall apart for the sake of revenge.” He hums. “I’d say this is that person’s trap, but,” he grins, folding his hands behind his head. “I brought most of this on myself.”

“You brought it on your dumbass because you’re the killer,” Iruma snarls.

Momota rubs the back of his head. “What you’re saying—is this your confession or something?”

Ouma shakes his head. “No. More like,” he pauses in thought briefly. “More like a warning.”

Quietly, Kaede can’t help but ask, “Warning against what?”

He turns to her, a knowing smile on his face. “Figured you’d be the one to ask. Just a warning that if I die here and the rules break again, this killing game will end exactly how it was intended to.” He winks at her. “That’s all. You’re pretty smart, Akamatsu-chan. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

Kaede stares at him in near shock while her mind races around his words, searching for the answers hidden and twisted somewhere, _anywhere_ in his sunny expression. 

Maki says, “Stop talking. Your empty threats don’t mean anything. They just show how desperate you are.”

“Harukawa-chan,” he says. “You should really stop talking like you know anything.”

Maki scowls, her red eyes fixed on him as she says, “Monokuma, I think we’re ready to vote.”

“No!” Kaede shouts almost involuntarily. The others turn to her, and she finds herself sweating under their stares. She falters, looking over them, and trips on her words, stuttering, “E-Everyone, please. There’s still so much about this case that we haven’t figured out. Voting for Ouma-kun—voting for anyone now—would be a huge mistake.”

Iruma groans. “Again with this shit? Bakamatsu, come _on_.”

Kaede blinks at her. “Huh?”

Maki sighs. “Well, I think that should clear up any of our doubts. Gokuhara’s murder is open and shut then—Ouma’s the killer, and Akamatsu is protecting him for some godforsaken reason. Again.”

“What? Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Kaede grips the edges of her podium, desperation surging over her. “Why won’t any of you listen to me? I know there’s evidence against him, but,” she searches for anything, “but there’s too much we haven’t cleared up yet. And Ouma-kun helped me investigate the entire time, even,” she waves vaguely, “even pointing out stuff I missed. It makes no sense for him to be the killer.”

No one responds to her, and in the following silence she says, “Why won’t you believe me?”

“Look, Kaede,” Momota says with a sigh. “I know you how you feel about condemning the killer, but c’mon. It fucking has to be him. Maybe he helped us out with the investigation and shit, but that doesn’t just cancel out the mountain of evidence against him, and,” he sends a glance towards Hoshi, “I think it’d be better if we didn’t drag this trial out, you know?”

The attention directed towards him isn’t lost on Hoshi, and he just pulls his hat down. “If we have our answer,” he says in a low voice. “Then we should just end this already…”

“So,” says Iruma. “Does that mean we’re starting the fucking vote or what?”

“No!” shouts Kaede. “If you all vote for Ouma-kun, we’re going to die!”

“You know, I have to agree with Akamatsu-chan,” Ouma says conversationally, finally coming to his own defense. “But, the idea that I’m the culprit sure is a comforting lie. I can see why you all like it so much.”

“Shut up,” says Hoshi. “Just shut up.” 

In the uneasy silence following his words, Angie says, “Sooo, does that mean we should vote now?”

“Yeah,” says Hoshi. “I’m done listening to him.”

“Wait!” shouts Kaede. “Hoshi-kun, I know how you feel, but—”

“Bullshit,” says Hoshi, his voice crueler than Kaede has ever heard it before. 

Kaede blinks. “Huh?”

“You think you get it because Saihara died?” he says. “Is that it? You knew him for two days. You knew him, and you knew you had other people around you. You still have your family, your friends on the outside,” he gestures to Momota, standing two podiums away, “hell, you have friends in here. So no, you don’t understand how I feel, and watching you defend Gonta’s killer makes me sick.”

Kaede finds herself speechless other than breathing out, “Hoshi-kun…”

Momota says, “Hey, Hoshi, don’t you think that was kind of harsh?”

Hoshi ignores him. “Monokuma, I’m ready to vote.”

“Oh,” says Ouma. “My, what a tragic turn of events. It looks like Gonta’s sacrifice will all be for nothing then.” 

“I thought I told you to shut up,” Hoshi says.

“Hoshi-kun, please,” says Kiibo. “Even though you are still grieving, Momota-kun was right. Please do not speak so harshly to your fellow classmates. Akamatsu-san,” he turns to her. “I am aware that you do not think Ouma-kun is the culprit, and though I would like to discover the truth behind the other mysteries in this case myself, I believe that if only the two of you are against voting now, we cannot have a debate.”

Kaede works her mouth uselessly to find the right words before saying, “No… no one else thinks we should keep talking? I know things look bad for Ouma-kun, but like Kiibo-kun said, there are still mysteries we haven’t solved yet. There _has_ to be more to this case.”

Silence follows, and Kaede pleads, “I’ll debate with you or hear your arguments, and if Ouma-kun is the culprit then, I’ll vote for him, but right now, I’m begging you all not to do this.”

More silence as her classmates idly trade skeptical looks, and Kaede hears her heart roaring in her ears, until one voice rings out.

“Tenko… Tenko didn’t investigate Gonta-san’s body… and she doesn’t have proof that Ouma-san’s innocent, but,” she takes a deep breath, steadying herself. “Tenko also does not think he did it. Even though Ouma-san is one of the worst boys Tenko has ever met, she knows he would never kill someone. So Tenko will argue on Kaede-san’s side.”

Kaede says, “Tenko-san…”

Ouma says, “Yay! Chabashira-chan also doesn’t want to die!”

Tenko glares at him as Kaede clears her throat, turning to address Monokuma. “So,” she says. “I know it’s uneven, but is three versus seven good enough for a debate?”

Kiibo nods. “I would also all like to continue our discussion. I will argue on Akamatsu-san’s side.”

Kaede shoots him a relived smile. “Thanks, Kiibo-kun.”

Ouma says, “Aw, Kiiboy’s one of the people who likes me? Boo…”

Monokuma tilts his furry head. “Hmm, so four against six? A bit lopsided certainly, but my mother did always tell me to turn a blind eye to one’s imperfections, soooo,” he holds the key high over his head, “here we gooooo!”

Kaede grips the edges of her podium to steady herself as they all begin to lift into the air. She looks across the way at Hoshi who stares at her, nearly boiling over with his own frustration and hatred over the situation. The others lined up on his side all bear their own expressions of various degrees of aggravation and annoyance. 

She takes a deep breath and meets Hoshi’s hardened gaze with her own fierce determination. Standing strong, however, is not her biggest concern, as Kaede numbly thinks just how little proof she has to prove her point. Ouma’s standing next to her, as unconcerned as ever and simply smiles back when he catches her staring at him out of the corner of her eye.

Hoshi starts talking, his first words dulled into nothing over the roaring in her ears as she decides the only way out of this and towards the truth of the case is to lie her heart out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actually back to posting on a Saturday! I've been casually rewatching DR1 and 2 to get a feel for trials in general, so if you see anything that seems like a reference to the first two games, it probably is, haha.


	17. Trial V

If she lies, Kaede realizes, Tenko will follow along, Ouma will be too amused to protest, and Kiibo will be confused. Her eyes dart to Ouma standing next to her, smiling as if he wasn’t staring his execution dead in the face. She looks back to Hoshi and straightens her hat forward. 

__

_(BEGIN)_

Hoshi starts, “Every piece of evidence in this case points to Ouma. We have no reason to suspect anyone else.”

Kiibo is the first to respond to him, “Though there may be some evidence, we have not discussed everything enough to declare Ouma-kun is the only person capable of being the killer.”

Iruma shouts, “He basically fucking admitted he found the body! Only the killer would keep quiet about shit like that!”

“Ouma-san likely had other reasons for not telling us,” Tenko answers. “And he did not attempt to stop us from discovering it this morning.”

“He already confessed to being on the fourth floor that night,” Momota says. “And it’s really fucking suspicious that he’d trap Iruma up there.”

Ouma smiles. “There’s nothing that proves my playing a trick on Iruma-chan’s related to the murder at all, especially since she doesn’t know anything about the case.”

“But,” Shirogane mumbles, “how else are we supposed to explain the locked room? Ouma-kun is the only person who could have gotten in…”

Kaede sees her opportunity. “This morning, Yumeno-san told us she lost her keys—the killer probably found them.”

Angie hums. “But the crime scene was really weird. God says only someone like Kokichi would do that.”

“That is not evidence,” Kiibo says. “Though Ouma-kun likes pranks, we cannot assume he did that without real proof.”

“It’s highly suspicious that Ouma set himself up to be one of the only people with an alibi during the blackout,” Maki says. 

Kaede quickly counters, “Suspicious or not, an alibi is an alibi, and,” she chances a look towards him, “Ouma-kun was just as surprised about the blackout as anyone.”

Hoshi just glares. “We already have enough information to conclude this case. Stop pretending otherwise.”

Tenko glares back. “Yumeno-san’s death is just as important as Gonta-san’s. If we vote now, we will never find justice for her, and _Tenko will never allow that!_ ”

__

_(BREAK)_

They descend, and Hoshi doesn’t say a word, simply glaring at some aimless spot in front of him. 

Tenko repeats, “Until we discover why Yumeno-san had to die, Tenko refuses to vote for anyone.” She turns to address everyone. “Deciding to vote now because it’s convenient is an insult to both Yumeno-san and Gonta-san. If we were truly their friends, then we wouldn’t stop fighting until we find the absolute truth about what happened to them.”

“Fuck…” Momota sighs. “Fine, I get it. I have no fucking clue who else it could be, but… guess there’s always a chance it’s not Ouma.”

Ouma just hums. “Hmm, I agree. Chabashira-chan makes a nice point, but I have a feeling she’s going to be disappointed.”

Kaede blinks. “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s still suspicious as fuck,” Iruma answers, eyes narrowed. “Listen here, ass clown, just ‘cause we’re not executing you yet doesn’t mean you’re innocent.”

“Man,” Ouma sighs. “Some people just get so hung up on the lies they like best. It’s kind of sad…”

“Stop talking,” Maki snaps. “And stop trying to weasel out of this, especially since there’s still holes in your argument, or more specifically,” she turns her glare on Kaede, “Akamatsu’s.”

Kaede bites back the fear that immediately seizes her. “What are you talking about?”

“You said Yumeno didn’t have the keys to get into the three rooms this morning,” Maki says. “So how did you and Chabashira get in?”

Kaede pales, but manages to stammer out, “I-I already said that Ouma-kun was there with us. He unlocked the doors.”

“That’s right!” Ouma says brightly, folding his arms behind his head. “Yumeno-chan already told me she lost her keys, so I was waiting up there to let Akamatsu-chan and Chabashira-chan in.”

Hoshi finally speaks up. “Yumeno told you to let them in? You?”

Ouma pouts. “Is it really that hard to believe? It’s the truth…”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “Now that you’ve said that, I’m having trouble believing it.”

Ouma starts sniffling. “Momota-chan has no faith in me… and I thought he believed in everyone even though that’s really stupid…”

“God, do I still hope you’re the killer,” Momota says.

Kiibo says, “If we may, now that we’ve decided to put off the vote, there are a few things I would like to discuss further, such as what Yumeno-san’s involvement in the case was, particularly if Ouma-kun was telling the truth just now.”

“Tenko would like to know that as well,” she says.

Shirogane says, “Well, um, are we still assuming Ouma-kun discovered the body last night? Before Iruma-san went to the fourth floor?”

“Whether we are,” Maki says with a pointed look to Kaede, “doesn’t seem to be up to us, but we should.”

“Which means,” Momota quickly cuts in. “Chabashira, Yumeno, and Ouma were the first three people, not counting the killer.”

Kiibo nods. “Chabashira-san found Gonta-kun this morning, Ouma-kun likely sometime before the… incident with Iruma-san, which would be between midnight and one in the morning.”

“Hmm, Angie remembers that Kokichi likes to lurk around the fourth floor at night,” Angie says. “Sooooo God thinks he probably found it sometime then.”

Momota groans. “You were actually being serious when you said you liked creeping around in the dark at night…”

“Of course!” Ouma says. “Would I lie to you, Momota-chan?”

Momota pinches the bridge of his nose, while Kaede says, “Which means the only one we don’t know the time for is Yumeno-san, other than it had to be before this morning when Tenko-san and I went to the fourth floor.”

“When we saw Yumeno-san this morning,” Tenko steps into clarify, “she was coming downstairs from the fourth floor. She said we should go upstairs to help prepare for her magic show, and that she… needed to do something.”

“Oh,” says Shirogane. “She didn’t happen to mention what it was, did she?”

“No,” Kaede says. “And unless anyone here can say otherwise, I don’t think anyone saw her after that either.”

Angie hums. “Angie saw reeeeally Himiko early this morning in the cafeteria. Angie was just making tea and Himiko came to get some since she said she was really tired.”

“I do remember you mentioning seeing her,” Kaede says. “Did she say or do anything else?”

“Nope!” Angie says. “All Himiko said was that she just woke up and was going to prepare for her magic show super early. She was really nervous, so she gave Angie a big hug before leaving and said goodbye! Sooo God thinks that Himiko probably discovered Gonta after that.”

“Huh? The fuck do you think that for?” Iruma asks.

“Because Himiko didn’t mention anything to Angie,” Angie says. 

“And if she discovered the body, she probably would’ve said something, huh?” Momota says, frowning. “But she didn’t say anything to Kaede or Chabashira, either right?”

Ouma says, “I think this is a nice first step in figuring out what role Yumeno-chan played in this case. So, Akamatsu-chan—you seem to be doing most of the heavy lifting anyway—care to point out what the answer is?”

Kaede frowns at him, but the other continue to talk in the background even as Ouma smiles at whatever game he’s playing with her.

_(Present your Argument)_

“This morning, Angie saw Himiko really early!” Angie says. “She said she was going up to the fourth floor, so she probably discovered Gonta’s body right after that!”

“What time was that approximately?” Kiibo asks.

“Hmm… God says it was about half past six,” Angie says. 

“Morning announcements are at seven-thirty,” Tenko says. “Tenko and Kaede-san saw Yumeno-san immediately after the one for today played.”

“God says everyone else should have been getting up at that time, too,” Angie says. “Since that’s when curfew ends for non-student council members.”

“So our timeline is,” Kiibo says, “Yumeno-san discovered the body this morning after speaking with Angie-san but before running into Akamatsu-san and Chabashira-san, and no one else saw her before the blackout.”

Angie claps her hands over her head. “God says that as long as Himiko didn’t go back to the dorms, then she wouldn’t have had to worry about running into anyone!”

“She also likely saw Ouma-san this morning,” Tenko says. “Though Tenko is doubtful that helps us pin down a timeframe.”

Momota sighs. “It always fucking comes back to Ouma…”

Ouma grins, folding his hands behind his head. “I’m pretty important.”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait, Angie-san,” Kaede says. “Yumeno-san definitely returned to her room after discovering the body. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Huh?” Angie asks. “But if Himiko tried to go to her room this morning, then God says that everyone totally would have seen her.” She hums, “Kaede, are you saying everyone is lying about seeing her?”

“N-No,” Kaede says, mildly taken aback. “I’m saying that I have evidence that shows Yumeno-san went back to her room sometime between discovering the blackout and this morning.”

“She mentioned it earlier,” Maki says. “Akamatsu said she and Ouma went to Yumeno’s room during the investigation and found bloody clothes, which are the entire reason we’re even assuming Yumeno was involved in the first place.”

Kiibo nods. “I see. Whatever interaction Yumeno-san had with the crime scene resulted in her being covered in blood, and unless anyone witnessed her returning to her room in such a state, we can assume she did not do it this morning.”

Momota, “Says I was in the dorms all fucking morning. Never saw her or anyone else covered in blood.”

Maki crosses her arms. “Of course you never saw anyone. You were in your room sleeping.”

“Well, I still didn’t see or hear anyone after everyone left when the morning announcement went off,” Momota says. “And I think someone running around covered in blood would probably attract some yelling.”

“And all of that,” Kaede says. “Means we can safely assume Yumeno-san found the body before this morning.”

“Does that mean she just… decided not to tell anyone?” Shirogane asks. “Why would she keep something like that secret?”

“Wrong,” Maki says. “Ouma already said Yumeno told him.”

“Wrong!” Ouma cheers. “I said Yumeno-chan told me to let Akamatsu-chan and Chabashira-chan into the death room.”

Hoshi finally speaks up again. “So the two of you were working together,” he says in a frighteningly quiet voice. “Is that it?”

“Huh?” Angie tilts her head to the side. “Who was working together?”

Maki says, “If we’re to believe even half the things Ouma has said—which admittedly is a risk—then we can assume that there is definitely a connection between Yumeno’s involvement in Gokuhara’s death and his.”

“I am unsure what that connection would be,” Kiibo says. “However, I do find it difficult to believe that both of them would discover a body and choose to say nothing without any communication between them.”

“So the loli and the shota were working together,” Iruma says. “How ‘bout this then—one of ‘em was the killer and the other was their accomplice. And then!” she jabs a finger at Ouma, “during the blackout the fucking ass gremlin bumped Yumeno off to keep her quiet!”

Ouma yawns. “Geeze, Iruma-chan, how slow can you be? We already decided it’s not me.”

“We didn’t,” Maki snaps. “We just decided to figure out exactly how guilty you are before executing you.”

He shrugs. “Fine, fine.” He yawns again, rubbing at his eyes. “Man, I’m getting so bored. We’ve talked for so long, and we’re still going in circles. Maybe I should give you guys a hint or something to speed things along…”

Kaede looks at him skeptically. “What kind of hint?”

“The fact that he’s even giving hints is fucking suspicious!” Iruma shouts.

“Shut up,” Momota says. “Ouma withholding information ‘cause he thinks it’s funny or some shit is nothing new.” He looks to him. “Just tell us already.”

Ouma tilts his head. “Will you say please?”

Kaede rolls her eyes. “Ouma-kun, will you please—”

He puffs out his cheeks. “I wasn’t asking you,” and his eyes practically sparkle when he turns to Momota. 

Momota says. “Oh, fuck no. Kaede, we can do this without him, so—”

“It’s a really good hint!” Ouma says. “Don’t you want to be everyone’s hero, Momota-chan?”

Iruma cackles, “Looks like we know what shota gets off on now.”

Ouma scowls, and Momota’s eyes dart between the two of them before he says, “How about I hit Iruma later instead?”

“Deal!” Ouma says. 

“What!?” Iruma squawks.

“Iruma-chan!” Ouma says. “Shut up! I need to tell everyone that I talked to Yumeno-chan before I saw you last night!”

Kaede blinks. “Did you just… give us the timeframe for the incident? Just like that?”

“For the discoveries anyway,” Maki says. “It would seem he did.”

Ouma smiles brightly. “I like to be helpful.”

“Now that’s a fucking lie,” Momota grumbles.

“Iruma-san,” Kiibo says. “Ouma-kun came to your lab at one last night, correct? Did you see anyone else when you went up the fourth floor?”

“N-No,” she stutters. “I-I mean, yeah, Ouma started banging on my door at one in the fucking morning, but I didn’t see anyone else last night ‘sides him.” She frowns. “Also none of you assholes showed up when I screamed for help either.”

“If Yumeno was working with Ouma,” Hoshi sighs. “She probably knew that trapping Iruma was part of his plan…” he shakes his head. “Whatever the hell his stupid plan was.”

Tenko stares at the ground. “But why? Why would Yumeno-san agree to work with Ouma-san?”

“I already said!” Iruma shouts. “Killer and accomplice! What the fuck else do you need?”

“A reason why anyone would agree to such an arrangement,” Maki says.

“Yeah,” Momota says. “It’s in Monokuma’s shitty rules that only person can graduate, right? The hell would anyone work together then?” He glances to Ouma who beams back. “Also why the hell would anyone work with _Ouma_?”

“I think the whys of this case will have to come later,” Maki says. “Especially since I doubt Ouma’s about to start talking anytime soon.”

Tenko frowns. “But Ouma-san just talked. He told us the timeframe and that he was working with Yumeno-san.”

“Yeah!” says Angie. “God says that sure is a lot for Kokichi to come just come out and say.”

Maki begins fiddling with her hair in a poor attempt to hide her embarrassment while Ouma laughs. “Looks like Harukawa-chan needs to pay more attention instead of just saying things she thinks will make her look cool.”

“That’s not what I was doing,” Maki snaps.

Ouma waves his hand. “Sure, sure, whatever.” 

Kiibo says, “If no one minds, there is another question I would like to ask regarding the idea that Yumeno-san and Ouma-kun were working together.”

“Fucking ask it, Kiibs,” Iruma says. “Got to be better than listening to shota fucking go on and on.”

“Well,” Kiibo says. “If Yumeno-san and Ouma-kun were working together last night between Gonta-kun’s time of death at midnight and Chabashira-san’s discovery this morning, why do we only have evidence that Yumeno-san was covered in blood?”

“Oh, I get it,” says Momota. “What do you say Ouma? You get sprayed with blood, too?”

Distantly, Hoshi just sighs, as Ouma sticks out his tongue. “No! That’d be really gross, and blood stains white clothes really badly, right Momota-chan?”

Momota glares. “What that the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Ouma presses a finger to his lips. “It’s okay. We can talk about your incident in the cafeteria this morning later.”

Kaede senses the shouting match on the tip of Momota’s tongue, and quickly cuts in, “We only know Yumeno-san was covered in blood at some point because we found some on her and a set of her clothes that were bloody.”

“That’s right,” says Shirogane. “Did anyone go to Ouma-kun’s room during the investigation?”

Momota snorts. “Anyone dig through Ouma’s closet?”

Kaede sighs. “Actually, yes. Ouma-kun told me the key to the handcuffs was in his room so we went there after searching Yumeno-san’s.”

Maki frowns. “Earlier you said Ouma had the key with him the whole time.”

“And I also said he lied about that,” Kaede says. 

“Soooo,” Angie says. “If Kokichi lied, does that mean he wanted Kaede to go to his room with him?”

“Doubt it,” Iruma says. “I’ll fucking shove this podium up my ass if shota swings that way.”

“The point is,” Kaede says. “I went to Ouma-kun’s room with him and actually saw the inside of his closet, and there wasn’t anything even remotely bloody in there.”

“Kaede-san and Ouma-san were also walking around together for most of the day,” Tenko adds. “Kaede-san likely would have noticed in Ouma-san had blood anywhere on him like Yumeno-san did.”

Angie hums. “Maybe Kokichi just washed it off really well? Ooh, or God thinks maybe he just hid his clothes somewhere else like the bathroom.”

“If it matters,” Shirogane adds. “I actually went to Tojo-san’s lab this morning to try and do laundry, and I didn’t see Ouma-kun’s or anyone else’s clothes while I was there.”

Iruma shrivels up her nose in disgust. “Eww. Does that mean no one’s been washing their clothes?”

“Not the point,” Momota says. 

She cackles. “Well that fucking answers that.”

“H-Hey!” Momota shouts. “I fucking do laundry sometimes!”

“He has to,” Ouma says brightly. “Otherwise Momota-chan would run out of stuff not covered in blood.”

Momota growls, “I thought I told you to shut the fuck up.”

Ouma smiles. “You didn’t. At least not recently.”

“What happened to Kaito this morning has nothing to do with the cases,” Kaede says firmly. “Ouma-kun, if you want to talk about it with him, you can do it later.”

Ouma’s grin stretches uncomfortably far. “Oh, I plan to.”

Momota grits his teeth. “Kaede,” he barks. “Just keep the conversation moving, alright? What do we need to talk about next?”

“Yeah, Akamatsu-chan!” Ouma says. “Do everything! Momota-chan needs your help!”

Despite the many times Kaede has seen the two go back and forth, there’s an anger lining Momota’s words that she hasn’t heard before. “I don’t!” he shouts. “I just—! Kaede,” he yells again, “Yumeno was covered in blood—Ouma wasn’t. Why the fuck is that important?”

Maki answers before her. “It means between the two of them, only Yumeno ever touched the body.”

“I think that’s true,” Kaede says. “But there’s still more questions.”

“Like how the fuck you get blood behind your ear from doing a corpse?” Iruma asks. 

“Shut up,” Hoshi snaps.

Iruma recoils. “I-I-I’m just a-asking ‘cause it’s w-weird, right?”

Kiibo nods. “It is. And it also makes me wonder what the purpose in touching the body was in the first place. Also, if we are to assume Ouma-kun is not the culprit, then I would like to know what the killer’s timeframe was in setting up the scene of the crime.”

Tenko fidgets in place. “What do you mean?”

“We have already established that the crime scene was setup in a very specific way,” Kiibo says. “And that even for the strongest of us here, moving someone as heavy as Gonta-kun would likely be a feat that would take a great amount of time in order to accomplish due to the sheer labor required.”

“Hmm?” Angie tilts her head. “Is something wrong with that?”

“I believe there is,” Kiibo says. “Ouma-kun brought Iruma-san to the fourth floor an hour after Gonta-kun’s time of death, meaning he discovered the body before then.”

“From what we have discussed, Yumeno-san probably found Gonta-san’s body around then, as well,” Tenko says, still staring at the ground. “And it is likely the killer would have done something to silence them if they had noticed either of Yumeno-san or Ouma-san after committing their crime.”

“Which means we can assume the killer left the crime scene before then,” Kaede says, furrowing her brow. “And that also means they had less than an hour to set everything up.”

Ouma presses a finger to his lips. “I think this mystery might be my very favorite of this case. So, Akamatsu-chan,” he shoots her a beaming smile, “do your best, and don’t be boring!”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Based on Ouma-kun’s testimony,” Kiibo says. “The killer set up the crime scene in less than one hour last night.”

“Ooh!” says Angie. “God says they must be really, really fast!”

“Or really strong, right?” says Shirogane. “Because they had to move Gonta-kun’s body?”

“Ouma’s a fucking freak,” Momota says, “and was probably already wandering around on the fourth floor right when the crime scene was being setup.”

Angie tilts her head to one side. “So then Kokichi hid from the killer?” and the other. “Or did the killer hide from Kokichi?”

“Yumeno-san was also likely there,” Tenko says softly. 

“So the killer hid from them both!” Angie announces. 

“In the middle of setting up the fucking crime scene?” Momota says. 

“The idea that the killer was still on the fourth floor when Iruma-san arrived is hard to believe,” says Kiibo. “Perhaps they came back to set up the crime scene after she fell into Ouma-kun’s trap.”

“So the culprit returned to the scene of the crime after Yumeno, Ouma, and Iruma discovered what they had done,” Maki says dully, “and didn’t see any of them or do anything about Iruma even though she was literally yelling from the next room.”

“A-Admittedly that is unlikely…” Kiibo stutters.

“God says the culprit is really fast, then!” Angie concludes.

_(BREAK)_

“Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “That’s it. The culprit had already left by the time Iruma-san came to the fourth floor. In fact, they probably had left to go back to their room for the night before Ouma-kun showed up either.”

“So you’re saying the killer actually did return to the scene of the crime?” Maki asks. “And they failed to notice three potential witnesses?” 

Kaede shakes her head. “No, I’m saying I think the simplest solution is the answer. The people who set up the crime scene were the people who were on the fourth floor and had all night to do it: Yumeno-san and Ouma-kun.”

Very slowly, Hoshi says, “It wasn’t… the killer didn’t…” he shakes his head, words seeming to fail him. 

Hesitantly, Tenko says, “Is that why Yumeno-san was covered in blood? Was she the one who moved the body?”

Hoshi sighs again. “Ouma probably could have helped her, too, without getting covered in blood. Gonta’s… Gonta’s stab wound mostly only got the front of his shirt bloody. If you focused only on pulling him by his arms or his side… you could do it.” He shrugs, blandly fiddling with the cigarette in his hands and staring someplace far away. “His blood was dry this morning, but that’s how I moved him.”

“And Hoshi-chan’s looking pretty clean, huh?” Ouma asks.

Kiibo still has his hand to his mouth, thinking deeply. “If we also continue our assumption that they had all night, there is also the possibility that they could have waited for the blood to dry a bit before attempting to move him.”

“Okay, okay,” Momota says waving his hands. “I get your reasoning and shit, but can we not ignore that this is fucking insane!? I never went there, but literally everyone has said how fucking weird the crime scene was, and now we’re assuming too people who _aren’t_ the culprit did it?”

“It is rather strange when you put it that way…” Shirogane says. “Moving the body, stabbing the statues with the swords… did the killer really do neither of those things?”

Iruma slams a hand on her podium. “How many times do I have to tell you assholes!? Ouma literally did fucking everything in big dick’s murder! How in the _fuck_ is he not the killer!?”

“Because I’m not!” Ouma says. “Geeze, Iruma-chan, you sound like a broken record.”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “I’m going to ask you this straight out, and I expect a real answer.”

“A poor thing to when it comes to him,” Maki says.

Kaede ignores her, focusing her attention solely on Ouma. “Did you or did you not set up Angie-san’s statues and stab them with Yumeno-san’s swords?”

“That’s the part you’re concerned about?” Iruma says.

“Iruma-san,” Kaede says, snapping her head to face the other girl. “The statues weren’t in the ritual room by the time you got locked in there, right?”

“Right…” she says slowly. “I woulda tired using one as a battering ram and thrust the head into the do—”

“So, Ouma-kun,” Kaede turns her attention back to him. “I need an answer right now.”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “Well, it’s hard to answer because you’re asking me two different questions.”

“But she’s not?” Momota says.

Ouma waves a dismissive hand in his direction. “Hey, Momota-chan, why don’t you sit this one out and let someone who actually knows what they’re saying do the talking, hmm?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Momota growls. “Are you trying to say that only you and Kaede know anything?”

“That’s not what I’m saying…” Ouma says tilting his head. “But it is true.” He shrugs and gives Momota a bland look. “Sorry, Momota-chan, you’re nice to look at, but you’re not really much of a hero, huh?”

To Kaede’s surprise, Momota doesn’t bite back at him but instead seems genuinely taken off guard. Maki snaps, “Stop insulting him for your own amusement. It’s tiring and it gets us nowhere.”

“Fine then,” Ouma says before turning back to Kaede. “And to answer your question, Akamatsu-chan, no and yes.”

“That is not a real answer,” Tenko says. “And Kaede-san specifically asked you to—”

“I heard her,” he says, rolling his eyes. “And I answered. No and yes.”

Kaede sighs. “Fine. At least you admit you had a hand in setting up the crime scene. Chances are we aren’t going to find out a whole lot of whys in this case until we find the culprit, but,” she presses a hand to her forehead, “Ouma-kun what purpose did you possibly have in doing all of that?”

“It was probably just to make the crime more interesting,” Maki says. “I think we can all agree Ouma enjoys doing idiotic things like that.”

Ouma giggles. “Man, Harukawa thinks she knows everything. It’s so funny!”

“Then ignore her,” Kaede says, not missing the way Maki scowls at her, “and answer my question. I thought the crime scene was strange during the whole investigation because I couldn’t even begin to imagine how it would have helped the killer, but knowing someone other than the killer did it just makes things stranger.”

“I did it to help everyone,” Ouma beams. “I wanted to give you guys a few hints. See, try imaging what the crime scene looked like before my help.”

“What help,” Hoshi scoffs. “The only thing you’ve helped do is show us how much of a freak you are.”

Shirogane hugs her arms to her chest. “To think someone’s enjoying the killing game so much to just toy with us like this…”

Kaede furrows her brow. “I think we should listen to him.”

Iruma says, “You always wanna fucking listen to him. What got a crush on whiny, pasty, and emo number two?”

Kaede glares at her darkly from under her hat. “Iruma-san, I am actually very angry at you right now, but that isn’t important.” 

Iruma wilts. “I-I just meant—”

“How the crime scene looked before Ouma-kun arrived,” Kiibo says, thinking aloud. “We still have not established why he was down there or how he was killed in such a position, but Gonta-kun was under the floor, correct?” 

“And the statues Angie-san created would not have been there,” Tenko adds.

“The room…” Hoshi says. “It… it would have been completely normal looking…”

Angie presses her hands to her cheeks. “Would we have even found the body?”

“I… don’t know,” Kaede says. “What happens if someone’s killed, but we never discover their corpse?”

“There can’t be a class trial, right?” Momota says finally. “Maybe… maybe the killer didn’t want to have a trial at all, then.”

Ouma smiles proudly. “Aw, looks like Momota-chan has a brain in there somewhere, even if he still needs to rely on Akamatsu-chan for everything.”

Momota sends him a tired glare but remains silent, other than mumbling, “Just shut up.”

Tenko says, “Wait, does that mean Ouma-san manipulated the crime scene to make us discover the body that means he wanted a class trial, correct?”

“Wait,” Iruma says, seemingly recovered, “The gorgeous genius inventor Iruma Miu has a better question that you’re all probably pissing all over yourselves to hear.”

She pauses dramatically, and after a moment of silence she nudges Kiibo’s shoulder, prompting him to ask, “What is your question, Iruma-san?”

“Glad you asked, Kiibs!” she says. “So, get this—big dick’s body is under the floor before the loli-shota duo arrive on the scene, yeah? Did they just decide to get down and dirty under the floor for no reason?”

Kaede blinks. “That’s actually a really good point.”

“D-Don’t sound so surprised!” Iruma shouts back. “I have lots of good points!”

Tenko’s voice is soft when she says, “Ouma-san said he and Yumeno-san worked together… Tenko has no idea why Yumeno-san would agree to such a thing, but the fact that they did means that maybe one of them discovered Gonta-san’s body and… simply told the other?”

Kaede nods. “That makes sense. Also, if they did work together, we probably shouldn’t assume they both found Gonta-kun independently, especially given the original positioning of his body.”

Angie hums. “We keep talking about how Gonta was under the floor when he died, but God still doesn’t know why. Ooh,” she clasps her hands together, “and we don’t know how he was killed yet either!”

“And we still have very few clues to explain why or how Yumeno-san was killed later,” Kiibo adds. 

“Her death is probably related to whatever plan she had with Ouma,” Maki says. “In Akamatsu’s testimony, she said Yumeno came down from the fourth floor where Ouma was waiting for them to arrive. It’s likely the two had been planning something right up until that point.”

“And the second part of their plan resulted in Yumeno-san’s death?” Shirogane asks. “So even if Ouma-kun isn’t the culprit, did he still trick her into getting herself killed?”

Tenko shouts, “That can’t be what happened! Because—because Yumeno-san would never fall for a horrible boy’s awful—”

“But what if it’s true?” Ouma asks blankly. 

Kaede just stares at him in shock as a sudden silence crashes over them.

After a moment of hesitation, Momota manages to stutter, “I-Is that a confession? Like, for fucking real this time?”

Then Ouma giggles. “Geeze, you guys. Can’t you tell a lie when you hear one?”

“You’re being suspected of murder,” Hoshi says. “You do realize that.”

“Enough already!” Tenko yells. “Tenko is-is—is so _tired_ of this.” She lets out a sigh and seems so exhausted as she shakes her head. “We have been arguing and yelling at each other for so long, and we are still no closer to figuring out why Yumeno-san died than when we started.”

Kaede murmurs, “Tenko-san…”

Maki says, “Why do you have a problem? Ouma clearly had a hand in Yumeno’s death—defending him makes no logical sense.”

Tenko just shakes her head again. “Tenko is tired of lies and insults and everyone thinking of themselves,” she says, “and Tenko knows that Ouma-san is hiding something, and she doesn’t know why. But she also knows that he would never kill anyone, and we are wasting time accusing him.” She takes a deep breath. “Tenko wants to find the truth in this trial so Gonta-san and Yumeno-san can have justice—so their deaths will matter. If Tenko just fought and clawed at everyone for her own survival, then she would be no different than the killer.”

A new silence falls over the others, though one more of acceptance than discomfort. However, after a moment, Maki’s voice breaks the quiet again, “ignoring the platitudes,” she begins, and Kaede braces herself for whatever is to come next, “you keep saying you believe in Ouma and that he wouldn’t kill someone. Why is that?”

Tenko falters. “T-Tenko just believes in him.”

“Ooh, Tenko,” says Angie, “earlier you said you’d rather die than not believe in your friends, soooo is Kokichi your friend? Ooh, what if he killed Himiko—would he still be your friend then?”

Ouma mercifully remains silent as Tenko says, “Tenko just knows that it is impossible for Ouma-san to have committed this crime.”

Kaede nods hurriedly. “I agree. And,” she looks over Ouma’s head to Tenko standing a few podiums away, “I also want to work with everyone to find justice for our friends. I think that’s really the only thing we can do.” Tenko smiles back at her, and Kaede turns to say, “So let’s turn our attention to Yumeno-san’s case so we can finally get a fuller picture of her involvement and why the killer went after her.”

“Ah,” says Shirogane. “I mean, I want to find justice for my friends, too, but does Yumeno-san’s case matter?”

“A fair point,” Maki says. “We only need to vote for whoever killed Gokuhara. Didn’t the two of you just go on and on about wasting time on unnecessary things?”

“Harukawa,” Momota says. “Who gives a shit about which death we need to figure out?” He slams his fists together. “Fuck Monokuma’s rules—Yumeno and Gonta are both fucking relying on us to find out what happened to them, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Ouma smiles. “Spoken like a real fake hero, Momota-chan. But anyway,” he ignores the scowl Momota’s face morphs into, “why don’t we figure out Yumeno-chan’s cause of death? That should clear up most of Akamatsu-chan’s questions.”

“Not all of our questions?” Hoshi says lowly.

“Nope!” Ouma cheers. “Just Akamatsu-chan’s!” He tilts his head to the side. “And maybe Iruma-chan’s, but I think she’s too stupid to get it.”

Iruma rises to his provocation again, but Kaede ignores them, instead exchanging a shared supportive smile with Tenko before launching into the next debate.

_(Present your Argument)_

“If you know what Yumeno-chan was doing during the blackout,” Ouma says. “Then you can figure out everything about her cause of death! It’s almost like you’re playing on easy mode after figuring that out…”

“Yumeno-san’s cause of death,” Shirogane says. “The Monokuma File said she was strangled, right? Is there anything else to that?”

“It also said the killer used some sort of object!” Angie says. “Angie thinks it was a rope!”

“Tenko investigated Yumeno-san’s injuries,” Tenko says. “Whatever… whatever was wrapped around her neck was likely more solid and bulky than a rope.”

“More solid?” Momota echoes. “What do you mean?”

Tenko says, “like something heavier.” She looks down at the ground, “something that would cut into her neck more…”

“A rope wouldn’t do that?” Shirogane asks. 

Angie steeples her hands. “Angie will pray for Himiko. Maybe her spirit can tell us what happened.”

“Ooh, Momota-chan,” Ouma chimes in, “is this the part where you say, ‘there are no ghosts and I’m super tough!’”

Momota glares at him. “Just shut up.”

Tenko wrings her hands. “Maybe Tenko’s report was wrong and it was a rope…”

“God doesn’t know where the killer could find anything that wasn’t a rope,” Angie adds. “Even in the storage room.”

_(BREAK)_

Kaede chooses her words carefully as she speaks next. “Hey, Iruma-san, before I go any further, I need you to do me a favor and think really carefully before you say anything.”

“I always think about the shit I say,” Iruma answers, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

Hoshi sends her a skeptical look. “Akamatsu, you’re really not doing yourself any favors in looking innocent right now.”

Kaede can only sigh. “I know, but it really can’t be helped if… some of the details surrounding Yumeno-san’s case are what I think they are.”

Tenko looks at her with clear concern. Choosing her words deliberately, she says, “Tenko still believes in Kaede-san, but what about Yumeno-san’s case do you and Iruma-san need to be careful talking about?”

“I’m really sorry,” Kaede says. “I’ll tell you later. But, if it’s alright, there’s a few questions I need to ask you about Yumeno-san’s body.”

Tenko suddenly looks uncomfortable but says, “Okay… Tenko went over what she knows already, but she will still try to answer.”

“Thank you,” Kaede says. “We all know the Monokuma File says that the culprit used an object like a rope to kill her, but you said it was likely something harder and thicker, right?”

Tenko nods, ignoring Iruma snorting in the background. “That’s right…”

“Is there any chance,” Kaede takes a deep breath, “that it could have been a bundle of cables?”

Tenko stares at her blankly for a moment. “Tenko… wouldn’t know…”

“Like,” Kaede gestures vaguely. “A bunch of cables all bound together. They’d be strong and thick and would probably leave an uneven pattern when they cut into someone’s neck. Yumeno-san’s wounds looked something like that, right?”

Tenko furrows her brow. “That is true, but where did the culprit—”

Suddenly Iruma screams, “Oh shit! Oh shit!”

“Looks like Iruma-chan figured it out,” Ouma hums. 

“I’m afraid I am not following,” Kiibo says. “If a bundle of cables was the weapon, does that mean Yumeno-san was killed in the computer room?”

Hoshi shakes his head. “I was upstairs during the whole investigation. If someone walked past me to go there during the blackout, I would’ve heard.”

“And Hoshi definitely would have fucking heard if Yumeno started fighting against her killer or something,” Momota adds. “So if we’re assuming it was a bunch of cables…” he trails off. “Why are we assuming a bunch of cables were the murder weapon?”

“This is mostly speculation, I admit,” Kaede says. “And I know you guys don’t have all the information I do, but, I’m fairly certain Yumeno-san was killed somewhere… specific.”

Iruma says, “You can fucking say that again.” She snaps her fingers. “Hey! Any of you assholes see pancake during the blackout?”

“Tenko searched the school for her,” Tenko says. “But… she was not able to find her or wherever she was being killed…”

“And quite unfortunately,” Ouma says. “I already asked everyone when I was with Akamatsu-chan, and it turns out we were the only two who were together the whole time.”

Iruma quickly adds, “A-And we already said that I have an alibi and shit.”

Maki looks between them. “Funny that the only three people who seem to have any idea what’s going on are the only ones with alibis.”

“Yeah,” says Momota. “I mean, not the suspecting you guys part, but like,” he rubs at the back of his head, “what the fuck is going on?”

Kiibo says, “From… what I can follow, it seems Akamatsu-san, Iruma-san, and Ouma-kun are all in agreement about the weapon used to kill Yumeno-san, and its description does fit with Chabashira-san’s autopsy report. However, why they are all so sure is… unclear, though it seems to have something to do with where Yumeno-san was killed.”

“But we don’t know where that was,” says Shirogane. “Right?”

“If Tenko couldn’t find Himiko during the blackout,” Angie says, “God doesn’t think anyone could!”

Kaede fidgets with Saihara’s hat, internally struggling with what she can actually say aloud. Tenko’s far too concerned stare and voice softly calling out, “Kaede-san?” does nothing to help.

Iruma decides to step in. “Wait one fucking second! The amazing archangel Iruma Miu just realized something!”

Kaede regards her warily, debating even acknowledging her before saying, “Iruma-san, remember what I said. Please think carefully…”

She waves a hand dismissively at her. “Yeah, yeah—I got it. But,” she dramatically gestures to herself. “The only fucking people who should know anything about anything are me and Bakamatsu so why,” for perhaps the hundredth time that day Kaede absently thinks, Iruma jabs an accusatory finger in Ouma’s direction, “does he know anything!?”

Ouma shrugs. “‘Cause I know everything.”

“No,” Kaede says. “Iruma-san’s right. Why would you… and why would Yumeno-san even know about that place?”

Ouma grins. “Someone told someone!”

“The only people who should know…” Kaede says again, “are me, Iruma-san, and the…” she trails off, glancing at the variety of confused and frustrated faces lining the court room. She swallows and makes a decision. “And the mastermind.”

A general murmur of, “Mastermind?” seems to start up, but Ouma’s voice quickly cuts over the group. “The door to Iruma-chan’s lab isn’t soundproof,” he says, all previous playfulness vanishing from his voice. “That’s why I knew.”

Iruma immediately shouts, “So you were fucking listening in on us, you little pervert!”

She keeps yelling, but Kaede just stares at him, attempting to piece through all the words she knows he’s not saying. Piece together why he all but outright told her to shut up.

More accusations fly at Ouma, and Kaede puts together the information only she and Ouma know. Yumeno used one of Iruma’s EMPs to cause the blackout. She was killed using the cables in the mastermind’s secret room. And everything that happened was part of some plan she had with Ouma. The whys of the situation remain elusive, but over the rising din, Kaede says, “Yumeno-san’s death isn’t related to Gonta-kun’s.”

Tenko is the first to respond, asking, “What?” far too helplessly.

Kaede takes a deep breath. “I know I’m being secretive, but I have reason to believe that Gonta-kun’s killer and Yumeno-san’s are not the same person. Which means…” she turns to address everyone. “Even if we discover who killed Yumeno-san, we can’t do anything about it.”

“But,” Momota says, “didn’t we just all say we were gonna find justice for her? That we weren’t going to—”

“If you think this is about justice or friendship,” Ouma says, “then you will never learn the truth behind this case. But then again,” he beams at him, “I didn’t expect you to in the first place.”

Momota’s hands tighten into fists. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Calm down,” Kaede says. “I don’t know why Ouma-kun’s saying some of the things he is, but he’s right that there are some serious problems in trying to figure out the culprit behind Yumeno-san’s death.”

“Like the fact that none of you sluts should have been able to do it?” Iruma says.

Kaede chooses to ignore her comment, continuing forward, “Yumeno-san was responsible for the blackout, and to cause the blackout, she went to a secret place that only me, Iruma-san and apparently Ouma-kun should have known about. However, we all have alibis,” she suddenly realizes something all at once, “Ouma-kun set it up to make sure it would be impossible for any of us to go after her. Isn’t that why he handcuffed himself to me and trapped Iruma-san upstairs last night?”

Ouma rocks back and forth on his heels. “Maybe.”

Momota shakes his head. “All that fucking means is that is had to be someone else, right? Isn’t narrowing down suspects a good thing?”

Kaede says, “The problem is that with the exception of me and Ouma-kun, everyone else was alone at some point during the blackout, and there’s no time of death on the Monokuma File.”

“Which means she could have been killed at any point after the power went off,” Maki says. “Strangling someone as weak and frail as Yumeno probably wouldn’t take a lot of time, and it wouldn’t require the killer to clean up any blood.”

Angie adds, “Ooh, but wasn’t Himiko’s body in the cafeteria? Doesn’t that mean the killer carried her there?”

“It does,” Kaede says. “But did anyone see anyone carrying her there?” 

“Moving Yumeno-san’s body…” Tenko says. “It probably wouldn’t have taken the killer much time…”

“So, um,” Shirogane says. “What does all this mean? Yumeno-san’s killer is still one of us, right?”

“It is,” Kaede says firmly. “And that person is the mastermind.”

Maki shakes her head. “Didn’t you say that before? With Amami’s death?”

“I thought we agreed Monokuma killed Amami or something,” Momota says.

“No,” Maki says, “ _we_ didn’t.”

“Akamatsu-chan’s right,” Ouma adds. “Yumeno-chan’s death is impossible to figure out, so let’s go back to talking about Gonta.”

“Wait!” Tenko shouts. “Y-Yumeno-san’s death is not impossible! There is a solution that we can find here, right?” She looks to Kaede with pleading eyes. “Right? Yumeno-san’s killer—there’s absolutely no way we can just ignore them, a-and,” she moves to wipe away the tears forming in her eyes, “a-and just let them keep hiding and living with all of us… if we don’t find them here, that’s… that’s what’s going to happen…”

Momota nods. “There’s no way in hell we’re going to allow that. Especially if they are the mastermind, that means we can end this whole fucking thing right now!”

“And then God says we can all go home!” Angie says.

“If we find out who killed Yumeno…” Hoshi says. “We can all leave.”

“No,” Maki says. “That’s not how the rules work. Yumeno died second, and Monokuma’s already made it abundantly clear that even if we do figure out who killed her, they won’t be executed.”

“B-But that means,” Shirogane stutters, “that we just have to live with a murderer?”

Carefully, Kiibo says, “Pardon me if this theory is off base, but is there a chance the culprit explicitly took action after Gonta-kun’s death so that rule would protect them?”

Hoshi lets out a sigh. “If Yumeno’s killer really is the mastermind, then they would have known what happened to Gonta, and that they could kill anyone who got in their way without consequences…”

“And starting the blackout,” Angie says. “If Kaede’s right and Himiko did that, God thinks the mastermind probably didn’t like that very much.”

“W-Wait,” Iruma stutters, suddenly shaking, “th-the rip-your-tits-off-and-eat-them-mastermind—that mastermind—st-strangled someone cause they fucked with their shit?”

“That’s what we’ve been saying, yes,” says Maki.

Iruma’s eyes are wide with panic, and her words come fast and frantic, “s-so if you know about that p-place or fucking made something, o-or—!” she directs her gaze to Monokuma, “I swear to fucking God it was all Bakamatsu!” she shouts, “I-I didn’t fucking do anything! S-So d-don’t—!”

“Iruma-san,” Kiibo says, “Are you alright?”

“Am I alright!?” she screeches. “The mastermind’s gonna—gonna fucking kill me in my sleep!” She begins clawing at her head, chanting, “I have to get out of here, I have to get out of here,” under her breath. “This place is _hell! I-I am not going to fucking die here!_ ”

“Don’t be silly, Iruma-chan,” Ouma says. “The mastermind can only get away with killing you if someone else dies first!” He puffs out his cheeks. “Also the mastermind killing someone is so rude—totally ruins the game. Soooo,” he folds his hands behind his head, “let’s go back to talking about Gonta’s death.”

“How the fuck can you say that!?” Momota shouts. “We just figured out who killed Yumeno—”

“We didn’t,” Ouma says. “But if Momota-chan found any clues while he was investigating, I’d be happy to hear!”

Momota turns away from him, mumbling darkly, “you know I didn’t fucking investigate.”

“That’s right!” Ouma says. “The only people who investigated were me and Akamatsu-chan, and I say we move on to Gonta’s death.” He turns to Kaede, “and Akamatsu-chan says…?”

Kaede knows he’s testing her, and Momota and Tenko’s stares weigh heavily on her when she finally says, “We shouldn’t ignore what happened to Yumeno-san, but for the time being—in order to get through this trial—we need to find out who killed Gonta-kun. If we don’t, we’ll all die here, and then we’ll never discover Yumeno-san’s true killer.”

With the exception of Iruma still mumbling to herself, a heavy silence hangs over the room. The inspiration that Tenko’s words moments earlier had inspired completely vanishes in the face of the reality of their situation, and Kaede realizes again that she has to be the one moving them forward. She straightens her hat, and says, “There are still a few big mysteries surrounding Gonta-kun’s death. If we want to find his killer, we need to start with those.”

It’s not a surprise that Hoshi is the first one to respond. “Why he was under the floor,” he says. “Still don’t know the answer to that.”

“Why did Yumeno-san agree to help Ouma-san in creating the crime scene, too,” Tenko adds, shaking her head. “Yumeno-san was so worried about helping everyone… Tenko can’t believe she would decide to trick us for no reason.”

“Though he has proved to enjoy being uncooperative for the sake of it,” Kiibo says, “we still also do not know the true nature behind Ouma-kun’s plan and how it relates to Gonta-kun’s death.”

“Also,” Shirogane says, “I don’t think we ever agreed on what the murder weapon in Gonta-kun’s case was.”

Kaede nods. “All of that sounds right, and I think we should start with how Gonta-kun and possibly the culprit got under the floor.” 

Momota crosses his arms. “So we’re just fucking moving on.”

Kaede sighs. “We have no other choice…”

_(Present your Argument)_

Kiibo says, “I believe I was the first to discover some of the floorboards were loose this morning. During the investigation, it was remarkably easy to simply move them out of place.”

“The floorboards in Iruma-chan’s room were also loose,” Ouma says. “That’s how the cockroach was able to scuttle under the floor.”

Iruma mutters, “Shut up—shut up!” still pulling at her hair.

Kiibo seems slightly taken aback but says, “Erm, the opening in the floorboards under the middle was rather large. Even someone like Gonta-kun probably could have gone through easily enough to get underneath the floor.”

“Ouma and Akamatsu spent a lot of time down there,” Hoshi says. “Think they were able to access each room.”

“Oh, does that mean every room had the floor cut up in the same way?” Shirogane asks.

Ouma sniffles. “I got all dirty crawling around under there, especially when we had to follow the blood trail…”

“Blood trail?” Momota repeats.

“Oh?” Ouma taps a finger to his chin. “Did I forget to mention that when I did all the work for you?”

Maki snaps, “Stop letting him get to you.”

“There was a large amount of blood under the floor,” Kiibo confirms, “However, it was slightly off center from where the floorboards could be easily removed, though if Gonta-kun was moved, I suppose there is a logical explanation for that as well.”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait, that’s wrong,” Kaede says. “During the investigation, it is true that each of the three rooms had some of their floorboards cut up, but while the middle room and ritual room seemed to have the same consistency in the way the floor was sawed open, the last room was different.”

“So the killer did something different to get under the floor in the last room,” Kiibo says. “Is that correct?”

Kaede nods. “I think so. When we were investigating, Ouma-kun and I found two different saws—one that was a normal handsaw hidden in the ritual room and the other was the large circular saw Yumeno-san was supposed to use for one of her magic tricks.”

“But why would the killer do that?” Shirogane asks. “Was there a reason why they needed to use two different saws?”

“I would like to know that as well,” Kiibo says. “Also, I would like to know the culprit’s purpose in going under the floor.”

“Akamatsu said Yumeno lost her keys,” Hoshi adds. “Maybe the killer had those so they could get into some of the rooms, but needed a way to move to the ones they didn’t have a key to.”

Kaede furrows her brow. Though he’s working off her lie, something about Hoshi’s words click in her brain. “One of the issues we had in the beginning was how this case was a locked room, but Hoshi-kun’s right. The killer only needed to be able to get into one of the rooms and then saw up the floor to move to freely to the others.”

“But,” Tenko says, “Why did the killer need to go to each room? All that was in the final room was stuff for Yumeno-san’s magic show…”

“And that was also the only room that was different,” Kaede says. “So maybe… the killer _didn’t_ go there.”

“So someone else sawed through the floor?” Angie asks. “Hmm… Angie doesn’t know why anyone would do that.” She clasps her hands together over her head. “Angie will try asking God to see if he knows.”

“I don’t think we have to do that,” Kaede says. “After all, last night, Yumeno-san—”

“Yumeno-san dropped one of her keys…” Tenko says. “The cracks in the floor were not very wide, but Tenko remembers that the key was still small enough to slip through. It… was very important to Yumeno-san that she retrieve it herself… so important that Tenko let her stay there while she went to bed.” Tenko shakes her head. “If only Tenko had helped her, then maybe Yumeno-san—maybe she…”

Kaede says gently, “You couldn’t have known, and you can’t blame yourself for not being able to predict the future. But,” she straightens her hat, “I think it’s safe to say that Yumeno-san was the one cut up the floor in that room, especially since when I examined the setup for her magic trick, there were no signs of force in removing the saw blade, indicating whoever took it apart knew what they were doing.”

“Wait,” Maki says, “isn’t that a contradiction?”

Kaede frowns. “To what?” 

“You said Yumeno lost her keys,” she continues. “If she retrieved it from under the floor, then she would have had it this morning.”

“Maybe Himiko lost it again?” Angie asks.

“No,” Maki says. “Chabashira just said it important to her to get her keys back when she lost them. Why would she carelessly lose them again?”

“There were two rooms Yumeno-san had keys to on the fourth floor,” Kaede says quickly. “She just lost her key to one of them.”

“And that key was less important than the other?” Maki persists.

“Maybe she was in a panic this morning?” Shirogane suggests. “Especially if she was on her way to start the blackout…” she shakes her head. “How did Yumeno-san start the blackout?”

Kaede stutters, “Uh, that’s not important. None of this is. All that matters is that Yumeno-san and the killer both independently used different saws to get under the floor.”

Maki shakes her head. “That isn’t an answer to my question, and it’s suspicious that you’re refusing to answer.”

Kaede finds herself faltering when Ouma comes to her rescue. “I know! I know!” he shouts, waving an arm in the air. “Yumeno-chan lied about losing her keys, right Akamatsu-chan?”

Kaede blinks. “She did?”

He puffs out his cheeks. “Geeze, Akamatsu-chan, do you really not remember? What did we find in Yumeno-chan’s room besides her clothes? It was shiny and gold and—”

“Th-That’s right,” Kaede says. “Folded up in her bloody clothes, there was… one of her keys and another key covered in gold glitter.”

“Uh, why the fuck would Yumeno or anyone else have something like that?” Momota asks. 

Ouma ignores him. “The pretty shiny key was also kinda bloody, but then again, it was wrapped in bloody clothing!”

Hoshi shakes his head. “Where does any of this get us? Yumeno went under the floor, got her key, and then she decided to help disguise a crime scene because Ouma talked her into it?”

Ouma says, “I am awfully convincing.”

“Also,” Kiibo says. “Did Yumeno-san manage to do all of that without the killer noticing? Did she do it before or after Gonta-kun was killed?”

“We left Yumeno-san around when nighttime announcement played,” Kaede says. “So that was ten, and the Gonta-kun’s death was at midnight, though he likely arrived there a little before that.”

“So Himiko was there the whole time?” says Angie. “What about Kokichi? Was he with her?”

Momota snorts. “If Ouma was there, the killer probably would have noticed them. Ouma’s fucking loud.”

“I am not!” Ouma whines. “Momota-chan’s picking on me…”

“I don’t know about Ouma-kun,” Kaede says, “and this is mostly just a theory, but…” she reaches up to fiddle with brim of her hat, “but I think Yumeno-san may have been there when the murder occurred.”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “Tenko does not think that’s possible because if Yumeno-san witnessed the murder firsthand, then she would have known who the killer is.”

Hoshi’s harsh voice cuts through the room, “and wouldn’t that mean Ouma knows, too?”

He smiles widely. “It sure is a possibility, huh? But,” he starts rubbing at his teary eyes, “even if I told you guys, none of you would believe me… you’d probably just vote for me even though I left so many hints…”

“So you do know,” Hoshi says, voice deathly quiet. “Then spit it out already.”

“Um, not to defend Ouma-kun,” Shirogane says, “but isn’t the idea that Yumeno-san saw the murder take place just an assumption? I-I mean it might be true, but I don’t think there’s any evidence…”

“Oh, yeah, Tsumugi,” says Angie. “That’s true. That’s true.”

Kiibo nods. “We also still have yet to answer the mystery of why Gonta-kun was under the floor in the first place. For Akamatsu-san’s theory to work, would that mean both Gonta-kun and Yumeno-san were under the floor at the same time?”

“And the killer didn’t notice her?” Momota says. “But didn’t they saw up the floor as an escape route? I mean, Yumeno’s pretty fucking small, but I think the killer would probably see her if she was lurking under the floor.”

Kaede straightens her shoulders. “I think that might trace back to what Yumeno-san was doing under the floor at the time Gonta-kun was killed. It’s something Ouma-kun and I accidentally discovered, too.” She sets her hat forward on her head. “And I think it might also be the answer to why Yumeno-san did what she did.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“This case started,” Kiibo says, “with the killer threatening Gonta-kun into coming up to the fourth floor and then tricking him into going under the floor.”

“What was the killer’s trick?” Shirogane asks. “Did they maybe pretend to drop something through the floorboards like Yumeno-san did?”

“What was Yumeno-san doing all that time?” Tenko asks quietly. “She-She got her key and then…”

“She obviously had to go back up,” Momota says. “Otherwise the killer would have fucking noticed her.”

“It is dark down there,” Kiibo says. “If Yumeno-san was simply crawling around in the dark, it is doubtful that she would have seen anything, and if she had a light, the killer likely would have seen it.”

“Maybe she took a nap like Iruma-chan!” Ouma says.

“Maybe you should shut the fuck up!” Iruma says.

“Oh?” Angie asks. “But if Himiko took a nap under the floor, she would have missed everything!”

“Just like Iruma-chan!” Ouma cheers.

_(BREAK)_

“No, Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “That’s not true.”

He frowns. “Did I make a mistake?”

She nods. “Yes, during the investigation, Ouma-kun and I actually figured out that if you’re moving underneath the floor and you use a light source like your monopad aimed at the ground, it’s actually pretty easy to go unnoticed by anyone above you.”

“Ah!” says Angie. “Angie remembers that! But,” she places a finger on her chin. “Is that what Himiko did?” 

“I remember that, too,” Hoshi says. “You guys were loud because Ouma kept whining, but I didn’t notice any light, and…” he sighs, “I was looking at the ground near where Kiibo pulled the floorboards up for most of the investigation.”

“R-Right…” Kaede says. “And not only that, but I think what Shirogane-san said was also true.”

“Huh?” she asks. “Me?”

“The key covered in gold glitter that Ouma-kun and I found in Yumeno-san’s room,” Kaede says. “We, um, tested it after finding it and it turns out it was the key to the ritual room.”

“Angie’s key?” Angie asks. “Is that where it went? But why did Himiko take it?”

“Why the fuck would someone even cover a key in glitter in the first place?” Momota asks. “They want it to be special or stand out or something?”

Kaede nods. “I think that’s exactly it. Something else I discovered during the investigation is that the glitter on the key still really stands out with even just a little bit of light. Not to mention, going to the trouble of covering something gold glitter was likely a very deliberate choice on the killer’s part, especially since the glitter sticks to stuff really easily.”

“So you’re saying the killer went to the trouble of preparing a special key to stand out in the dark,” Maki says. “And they did that because?”

“Oh, um,” Shirogane says. “You said you think I got it right, when I plainly said that—I think it was—the killer tricked Gonta-kun by pretending to accidentally drop something under the floor?”

“But if that happened,” Kiibo says, “and Yumeno-san happened to be under the floor to retrieve her own key at the same time—”

“—or waking up from a nap after getting her key because of all the noise,” Ouma adds. “Gonta’s really heavy so he has really loud footsteps, like—” 

Ouma begins making sound effects akin to Godzilla crashing through a city. Kiibo chooses to ignore him. “Ah, so if Yumeno-san was under the floor while the culprit was attempting to lure Gonta-kun by dropping the shining key, she logically would have seen it as well, correct?”

“And, what?” Momota asks, rubbing the back of his head. “They both go after it at the same fucking time or something? I mean, Gonta was into being a gentleman and shit, so I get why he would do it—”

“No,” Hoshi says. “He came into the room being threatened—a room full of swords. There’s no way he would just do what the killer said.”

“Maybe he felt like he had to,” Tenko says. “Because of the killer’s note… If it was Tenko and Yumeno-san was being threatened, she would have done it.”

Hoshi shakes his head. “He wouldn’t do that. Gonta… he always said he was an idiot, but we wasn’t. And,” Hoshi lets out a sigh, looking at the ground, “I refuse to believe he’d just let himself be killed like that.”

“What if,” Kaede says, “what if he did it to protect Yumeno-san?”

“What?” Hoshi asks.

“There’s actually some evidence for this, too, but,” Kaede begins, voice soft, “Gonta-kun had really good vision, right? You and he would look for bugs outside that no one else could see?”

Hoshi pulls his hat lower but remains silent. 

Kaede keeps going. “So maybe—even if the killer didn’t—Gonta-kun saw Yumeno-san moving underneath the floor towards the key, which… was probably also the killer’s mark about where to stab in the dark.”

“That’s a nice theory,” Maki says. “But if you’re just saying all that to make Hoshi feel better, you aren’t accomplishing much.”

“I know,” Kaede says. “A lot of it is just me guessing, but there is something that has been bothering me that I think proves Gonta-kun and Yumeno-san were in almost the exact same place when Gonta-kun was killed.”

Tenko stutters, “Th-The same place?”

Angie presses her hands to her cheeks. “Angie doesn’t even know if that’s possible!”

“Well, Akamatsu-chan,” Ouma says. “Best not to keep your audience in suspense.”

She sighs. “Kiibo-kun mentioned it before that there was a large pool of blood slightly out of the way from the opening. That’s why we’ve been assuming Gonta-kun was killed under the floor, especially since there was no blood dripping from above. But what was strange about the puddle is that it was uneven—like something had been placed under him to catch some of his blood, and during the entire investigation, there was only one thing I could think of that fit that description.”

Tenko breathes out, “Yumeno-san’s clothes…”

“I understand now,” Kiibo says, crossing his arms. “Though we already cleared up why Ouma-kun was not covered in blood, it was still odd to me that they did not take the same precautions for Yumeno-san.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait just a fucking second,” says Momota. “You’re saying literally all of this shit went down right under the killer’s nose, and they didn’t notice any of it?”

“According to Ouma’s testimony,” Maki says. “He and Yumeno were the ones to move the body. If all of that isn’t a complete lie, then I suppose we can assume the killer never had any intentions of retrieving the corpse from under the floor.”

“Gonta-san…” Tenko says. “Gonta-san died protecting Yumeno-san?”

Hoshi remains silent, staring hard at the floor.

“Well, guess that’s my cue,” Ouma says brightly. “Akamatsu-chan mentioned it before, but there was a trail of blood leading away from where Gonta died back up to Yumeno-chan’s room, and it was created by Yumeno-chan!”

“She was probably terrified,” Tenko says, squeezing her eyes shut. “Yumeno-san…”

“So the killer just left after that?” Shirogane asks. “And Yumeno-san ran into Ouma-kun later when she was covered in blood?”

“I think so,” Kaede says. “Like Tenko-san said, Yumeno-san was probably in a panic, and Ouma-kun… he tried to convince her to help him with a plan to fight against the mastermind.”

Tenko rounds on Ouma standing next to her. “You manipulated Yumeno-san!? You—it’s your fault she’s dead!?”

Ouma doesn’t respond, and Iruma keeps shaking her head. “It’s fucked. Everything’s fucked… I’m going to fucking die here…”

“So Ouma’s not the killer,” Hoshi says closing his eyes. “But in Yumeno’s case, he may as well have been…”

“Unfortunately,” Maki says. “We can’t vote for him. Being responsible for someone’s death is not the same as directly killing them, but even if it was, this is a trial for Gokuhara’s murder.”

Momota sighs. “Are there any clues we haven’t gone over yet? Some of our theories are still pretty fucking shaky, honestly, but even if we believe in them, do we even fucking have anything left to point us to the killer?”

“There is,” Kaede says. “We never confirmed the murder weapon or where the killer stashed it after the murder. I… only have indirect clues, but I think there’s only one person who could have hid the murder weapon where I think they did.”

“That’s an awful lot of ‘I thinks,’” Maki says. “And an awful lot of relying on your word.”

Kaede sighs. “Well, as Ouma-kun keeps point out, my word is all we have, but,” she straightens her hat, “It should still be enough to end this case.”

_(Select Someone)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A day late, but here it is! This fic is quite a bit of work to write, and I usually have fun writing most chapters, however, this chapter was not one of them, haha. I've had the major twists for this chapter planned out almost since the beginning (and shout out to a few commenters who figured me out completely, haha) but actually writing out the reveals for them was a bit trickier than I anticipated. Hopefully there aren't too many jumps/holes in the logic used!


	18. Trial VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An execution is detailed this chapter.

Kaede takes a deep breath. “Angie-san, you said this morning that Yumeno-san came to see you, right?”

Angie nods. “Mhmm, mhmm! She was super nervous so Angie gave her some encouragement!”

“And… you said she hugged you, right?” Kaede continues.

“That’s right!” Angie answered. “Himiko doesn’t really do stuff like that so that’s why Angie knew she was really nervous.”

“Alright,” Kaede says taking another breath as she straightens her shoulders. “And no one else besides me and Tenko-san saw Yumeno-san or Ouma-kun before the blackout, right?” A silence greets her, and Kaede takes another moment before she says, “That’s what I thought.”

Angie tilts her head. “Huh? Kaede, is there something wrong with Angie seeing Himiko?”

“It’s just that, well,” Kaede says, “a problem I’ve had with this whole conversation is that there is almost no doubt that Yumeno-san knew who the killer was, and that before her death, she made sure to give Tenko-san the key to your lab.”

Angie gasps. “Himiko stole Angie’s key?”

“What?” asks Momota. “Did she do it when she fucking hugged her or something?”

“Yumeno-san,” Tenko says tightly. “She did slip the key into Tenko’s pocket when she hugged her…”

“Pickpocketing is a pretty easy skill to teach someone who’s already good at sleight of hand,” Ouma says rocking back and forth on his heels. “Or reverse pickpocketing in Chabashira-chan’s case.”

“I see,” says Maki. “So Yonaga was specifically targeted by Yumeno—and apparently Ouma, as well—that morning.”

“So, so, so,” says Angie. “What does that mean?”

“Tenko and Kaede-san did search through Angie-san’s lab during the investigation,” Tenko says sending Kaede a wary look, “though we did not find anything of interest other than the tools that Angie-san used to finish the wax statues, and those were to be expected.”

“So it didn’t fucking matter,” Iruma mumbles. “None of this shit fucking matters—nothing we do matters…”

“But it was important to Yumeno-san that Tenko receive that key,” Tenko says, new confidence surging through her words. “And if it was important to Yumeno-san then Tenko refuses to believe it doesn’t matter.”

Kiibo adds, “I also think it is logical that the key would be important if it was something Yumeno-san did right before her death. However,” he frowns, bringing his hand to his chin, “though I am aware that Ouma-kun… enjoys playing games, I still do not know why Yumeno-san would fail to tell someone she trusted as much as Chabashira-san who the killer is.”

Maki says, “Ouma probably told her to. If she was willing to go along with half his idiotic not-plan, she probably would keep her mouth shut if she was told to as well.”

“No,” Kaede says. “I think it’s more complicated than that. After all, we still haven’t established a concrete reason for why Yumeno-san would agree to do what she did in the first place.”

Hoshi sighs. “If… if what you said about Gonta… deciding to protect her was true, then she was probably scared.” He pulls his hat down. “Don’t know how that translates to working with Ouma, though…”

Momota shrugs. “Well, people do crazy shit when they’re scared, right?”

“Like scream about ghosts like a big scaredy cry baby?” Ouma asks.

Momota glares at him. “You shut the fuck up—especially since you know what happened.”

“If Ouma-kun knows what happened,” Shirogane says. “Shouldn’t he talk more?”

“Yeah!” says Ouma. “Don’t you want to hear my melodic voice give you all the answers, Momota-chan?”

Momota glares again as Kaede opts to speak over whatever bickering she knows is coming. “ _Anyway_ I think the answer to why Yumeno-san decided to work together with Ouma-kun to try and stop the killing game is relatively simple.” She takes a deep breath. “The killer was probably someone she liked—someone she would want to protect, even if she was traumatized.”

Kiibo nods. “I see. And if she had succeeded in ending the game with Ouma-kun, then the killer would be freed along with everyone else.”

“And we’d all be out of this fucking death trap,” Iruma curses under her breath.

Hoshi’s hands tighten into fists. “You’re saying Gonta died to save her, and Yumeno still decided to protect the killer? We’ve been going in circles all this time because—”

“It’s only a theory,” Kaede quickly amends. “But… it fits together with everything else too well.”

Ouma hums. “I think we’re reaching the end. I left a super special hint for the last mystery, and once that’s solved there should be no doubt.” He grins, folding his hands behind his head. “Go ahead and tell them who it is, Akamatsu-chan. I wouldn’t want to steal your thunder.”

Kaede gives him a long before she sighs and turns back to the group. “The killer… didn’t want this trial. I think they did what they did because they wanted to keep everyone safe, not to escape. This was a while ago, so they may have forgotten they even said it, but they once mentioned committing a murder where no one would find the body so there couldn’t be a trial, and I think that’s what would have happened if it hadn’t been for Yumeno-san and Ouma-kun.”

She looks out over everyone again and tells herself this is the best path. Ouma will do it if she doesn’t. She can make this… as painless as possible. Kaede takes another breath and says, “You’re the killer, aren’t you, Angie-san?”

Angie just blinks at her. “Huh? Angie’s not the killer. God told Angie to protect everyone in the student council so we could all live here peacefully—she would never do a thing like that.”

Her resistance makes Kaede wince. “I don’t doubt that’s true, but if you felt like someone was a threat to that peace…”

“Hmm?” Angie tilts her head. “Kaede, Angie knows you already betrayed her earlier, but she wasn’t expecting this!”

“Wait,” says Momota. “So wait—of everyone here, Angie fucking felt _Gonta_ was a threat to her student council?”

Hoshi stares at the ground. “He was one of the few people to outright reject her offer to join…” he lets out a sigh. “Because I fucking told him to.”

Iruma’s still shaking. “That’s all if f-f-fucking takes? That’s all it takes to be fucking killed!?”

“Everyone wait!” Angie says. “Angie’s not the killer—too bad, Kaede! Soooo,” she tilts her head, “who’s your next guess?”

Kaede gapes at her for a moment. “I—what?”

Angie just smiles. “Soooo, Angie’s super not the killer. She just said that already!”

“That’s not an argument,” Maki says.

“Hmm?” Angie taps a finger to her chin. “Why does Angie need to argue when she’s innocent? God thinks that’s silly.” Her smile doesn’t falter even a fraction but something in it darkens as she leans forward. “You’re saying Angie’s the killer because they targeted Gonta, right? But Angie didn’t send the threatening note.” She clasps her hands. “Therefore Angie’s not the killer!”

“Um,” says Shirogane. “Is that an argument?”

“Who cares about the fucking note?” Momota says. “You had motive and shit—isn’t that enough?”

Ouma hums, picking at his fingernails. “Jumping on the bandwagon once Akamatsu-chan picks a suspect without thinking, well,” he beams at him, “anything really. But that’s just the Momota-chan way!”

Momota balks at him, opening and closing his mouth a few times before shouting, “What the fuck is your problem with me!? Is Angie not the killer!?”

“No, she is,” Ouma answers. “She’s the killer but nothing else. Even someone as useless as you should be able to figure that out from everything we’ve talked about, Momota-chan.”

Momota keeps yelling almost blindly in the face of being insulted, but Kaede furrows her brow, turning his words over in her mind. “Angie-san… didn’t setup the crime scene or kill Yumeno-san or cause the blackout. Did… did she really not send the letter, either?”

“What are you rambling about?” Maki asks. “Saying she didn’t send the letter is obviously a flimsy lie.”

“But Angie didn’t!” she cheers. “And God says the person who sent the letter has to be the killer. So, Kaede,” Angie turns to her. “Who else do you think the killer is?”

Kaede blinks at her. “Angie-san—”

“Stop listening to her, Akamatsu,” Maki says. “Obviously she’s trying to get you to defend her like you did for Saihara and Shinguji.” She sighs. “Really, if we want this to get any further someone else should take the lead.”

“But no one can,” Ouma says brightly. “Unless you have evidence, Harumaki-chan.”

Maki’s entire body seizes up and her face darkens dangerously as she turns her glare on him. “Do you want to be killed?”

Momota stutters, “H-Hey, Harukawa, calm down—”

“Aw!” Ouma clasps his hands. “My beloved Momota-chan is coming to my rescue!”

“I-I’m not doing shit!” Momota quickly calls out. “I’m just—I don’t—” he looks lost for a moment, and Kaede notices one of his hand moving to grab at his side before he yells, “both of you fucking knock it off! We’re not,” he clenches his jaw, “we’re not fucking getting anywhere.”

“No,” Tenko says stiffly, staring the three of them down. “We’re not.”

“So doubting Angie was a dead end, then,” Angie says before steepling her hands. “Angie asked God, and he said to remain calm even in these trying times, and now Angie has been proven innocent.”

“That’s not what happened,” Hoshi snaps. “Stop twisting our words to suit whatever you—”

“Huh?” she says. “But that’s what you’ve all been doing to Angie.” She ticks off her fingers. “Angie didn’t set up the crime scene or hurt Himiko or even have her keys to her lab, so,” she smiles, “the only thing Angie is guilty of is being friends with Himiko—and God says that isn’t a reason to suspect her.”

Kiibo nods. “I have to agree. Akamatsu-san,” he turns to her, “you said earlier that suspecting Angie-san fit together with other pieces of evidence, presumably. However, I’m afraid it is still unclear what those are.”

“Also,” Shirogane chimes in. “If you don’t mind me asking, you said you explored Angie-san’s lab earlier and didn’t find anything. So wouldn’t that mean she’s innocent?”

Angie claps her hands. “Oh, that’s totally right, Tsumugi! Angie has nothing to hide!”

Kaede stares hard at her and can’t help but lower Saihara’s hat slightly over her eyes. “That’s not true, Angie-san,” she says. “The key to Gonta-kun’s case is where the killer hid the murder weapon, and if I’m right, you’re the only person who could have done it.”

Hoshi sighs. “I’m not arguing with you, Akamatsu, but we still don’t even know what the murder weapon was.”

“No,” Kaede says. “We know exactly what it was because there’s one thing that _has_ to have been at the crime scene that we couldn’t find anywhere.”

“See, you say ‘we,’” Ouma says. “But it’s really just you and me, Akamatsu-chan. Oh,” he places a finger to his lips, “and the killer.”

“Then tell us,” Tenko says. “You keep saying we’re close to the end, but you also keep refusing to answer Tenko’s questions!” She shakes her head. “Tenko is sick of this trial and sick of doubting her friends, but you won’t let us just stop. You know all the answers, but you’re forcing us all to go through this… We… we won’t be able to do anything for Yumeno-san, but we’re still here insulting each other over and over again over Gonta-san.” She looks up, and Kaede recognizes the pure exhaustion she had seen earlier coming in full force as Tenko wipes at the tears running down her face. “Why won’t you let us just stop already?”

Her words jolt Iruma to life, and she shrieks, “He’s fucking getting off on our suffering! Th-That’s it! I’m right, aren’t I!? D-Don’t even try to fucking lie, you midget sadist freak!”

Hoshi snaps, “Didn’t you hear a word Chabashira just said?”

Iruma returns to quivering, letting out a high pitched squeak as she does so. Kiibo tentatively reaches out a hand to rest on her shoulder. She whips her head towards him as he says, “Iruma-san, please calm down. I am aware our situation is not good, and Angie-san is someone I consider a friend as well. However, if we want to proceed forward to finally finish our discussion, exploring this line of questioning may be necessary.”

“Right,” says Momota, seemingly regaining some of his composure, though one hand remains clutching his side. “You’re fucking right. I have no idea what shit Kaede’s talking about, but we should hear her out. ‘Sides,” he lets out a resigned sigh. “If we’re gonna get the answer handed to us, better her than Ouma.”

Ouma smiles at him. “Aw, looks like Momota-chan’s finally starting to understand how this works.”

Momota scowls as Kaede grimaces at his words. “Thank you, Kaito,” she says quickly. “I think if we can answer this, we can finally put to rest what the murder weapon was, and,” she sends a look towards Angie still smiling brightly before shifting Saihara’s hat to obscure her completely. “And from there it should confirm Angie-san’s guilt.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Angie doesn’t know why we’re even talking about this,” Angie says. “Angie isn’t guilty, so there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Whether you are guilty or not, Angie-san,” Kiibo says diplomatically, “it is best we confirm the murder weapon.”

“I-It was one of loli’s fucking swords!” Iruma shouts.

“We have already established that Yumeno-san’s swords are innocent,” Tenko says.

“At the crime scene,” Hoshi says, “nothing that looked like a weapon has blood on it.”

“That is correct,” Kiibo adds. “Even upon inspecting the swords inside the statues, we did not find any blood or other substances.”

“Other substances?” Shirogane echoes.

“Like shit?” Iruma adds.

“N-No,” Kiibo stutters, “I am simply trying to cover everything.”

“What the fuck is this conversation?” Momota mumbles under his breath.

“God says Angie’s statues are innocent,” Angie says. “And so is Angie!”

_(BREAK)_

“Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “There was nothing on the statues you inspected with Angie-san, right?”

He nods. “That is correct. Is… there something wrong with that?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “Those ones all should have been clean. The only one that wasn’t is the strangest one—the statue of Saihara-kun.”

Kaede can practically hear Maki roll her eyes. “Does your deluded obsession with him really have anything to do with this case? Or are you going to argue it was his ghost again?”

Kaede clenches her fists. “Hey, Harukawa-san, I don’t think I remember you ever going to the crime scene.”

Maki’s face darkens. “Stop trying to undermine me. My point still stands.”

“Harukawa-san, stop,” Tenko says. “Kaede-san has been helping us find the truth this entire time—there is no reason to doubt her reasoning now.”

“Have to agree,” Hoshi sighs. “And she’s right by the way. Saihara’s statue was the only one that wasn’t impaled with a sword. ‘Course we all know that was Ouma’s doing now.”

“So it’s all bullshit?” Iruma says. “A-And this is fuck-all and we have no proof!?”

“No. I mean, I don’t doubt that Ouma-kun did it,” Kaede says. “But I also don’t think that means we should just dismiss it. Especially since,” she looks over to Ouma batting his eyelashes at her. She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Especially since this entire trial has been him giving us hints.”

Momota frowns. “So it’s another hint, then?”

Ouma smiles. “Mhmm! My beloved Momota-chan knows me so well!”

Momota sighs again. “Stop fucking talking to me.”

“Hmm, but, but, but,” Angie says. “If Kokichi did it, then God says that just makes him suspicious.”

“It does,” Kaede says. “But that isn’t the only reason. I… would like to think he wouldn’t do something like that just for the sake of amusing himself.”

“A dangerous assumption,” Maki adds.

“Um, so,” Shirogane says. “Ouma-kun left Saihara-kun’s statue alone for a reason then? Is that right?”

“If I am following your logic correctly,” Kiibo says. “Then Ouma-kun purposefully did not tamper with the statue of Saihara-kun to give us a hint towards the true identity of the killer?”

Angie presses her hands to her cheeks. “Ooh, Angie wonders who it is!”

Kaede stares at her and has to swallow the dread rising up in her throat before she can trust herself to speak without stuttering. “The point is, Ouma-kun did it to draw attention to the statue—particularly the fact that it had some of the same gold glitter that the key did on it.”

“Huh?” says Momota. “The fuck would gold glitter be anywhere else?”

“Oh! Um,” Shirogane says quickly. “I played this one game where a girl tried to murder someone—but she ended up getting killed herself, though I suppose that’s not really important—and her target at one point used a golden sword to defend themselves, but the glitter was really sticky and got everywhere, and, um…” she cuts herself off, becoming pointedly aware of all the stares suddenly directed towards her rambling. “Does any of that have to do with the case?”

Kaede just blinks. “Actually yes. I was about to say that the glitter did stick to other things really easily.”

“Wait,” says Momota. “Is this glitter shit like the crap on the sword Ouma tried to wipe on my coat? Took for-fucking-ever to get it out.”

Ouma tilts his head. “Longer than the bloodstains?”

Momota opens his mouth to yell before suddenly wincing and clutching at his side again. “Sh-Shut up…” he says. “I told you to fucking shut up…”

Maki’s normally cold eyes watch the motion with an emotion Kaede can’t quite place before she says, “Let’s end this quickly, then. There was a golden sword—Akamatsu seems incapable of saying it outright, but that’s probably the murder weapon.”

“But,” Tenko says. “That sword was in Shinguji-san’s research lab—anyone could have taken it.”

“Which means there’s no proof, and Angie’s proven innocent once again!” Angie says. “So God says now we should work together to find the real killer!”

“That’s not proof of anything,” Hoshi says coldly. “If anyone could have taken it, then you’re still a suspect, and you’re a murderer.”

“Hey, Ryoma,” Angie says. “Can Angie ask you a question?”

Hoshi stares at her skeptically for a moment. “You’re asking me a question?”

“Angie is,” she nods. “See, Angie thinks you’re thinking about this wrong. You keep talking about the killer like they just killed Gonta for fun or because they were selfish, but didn’t Gonta choose to be killed? Shouldn’t he be the person you’re angry at?”

Kaede stares openmouthed at her. “Angie-san?”

Hoshi grips the edges of his podium. “How dare you—”

“See, as far as Angie understands it,” she says. “From the weird note and Kaede’s theory about Himiko, Gonta totally decided to let himself die to protect everyone! So, so, so God thinks that we’re thinking about this wrong! If the victim chooses to let themselves die and the killer tried to avoid having a trial like Kaede said, then why does anyone have a problem?”

“Angie-san,” Tenko says. “Gonta-san is dead…”

“And Angie feels really sad about that!” she clasps her hands together. “Angie prayed for him during the investigation, and she’ll pray even harder after the trial. God says it’s super sad when someone dies, but it’s okay because they’re with him so they get to be at peace and stuff. So the way Angie sees it, Gonta’s at peace, and we can all still live here peacefully, so there isn’t really a problem.”

“We’ll all be executed if we don’t figure out who the killer is,” Maki says plainly. “I think even the most idiotic of us could agree that is a problem.”

Angie tilts her head to the side. “But there’s a solution to that, too? Last time Kaede said we don’t have to vote, and that means we can just pause the trial and keep living like nothing happened. Yup!” She claps her hands. “God thinks that’s exactly what we should do.”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Is that even a possibility?”

“W-Wait,” Iruma stutters. “After we’re done with this bullshit trial, we all just go back to the fucking killing game? Th-That’s what happens if we vote…”

“So we either don’t fucking vote now and all die together or we do and die later?” Momota asks. “What kind of fucked up argument is that?”

“It’s true!” Angie says. “And God thinks everyone living together and lying and betraying each other is really sad. Because even if we do find the right killer, there’s still a murderer among us, right?” She pauses, tapping a finger to her chin. “Or, another murderer at least.”

Maki and Hoshi both glare at her. Tenko clears her throat. “Angie-san, what are you talking about? Are you confessing to being the killer?”

She shakes her head with a bright smile. “Nope! Because Angie didn’t do anything wrong!”

Kiibo says, “I… am unsure of this direction of conversation, however we still have yet to provide conclusive evidence that Angie-san or anyone else is the culprit.”

“Mhmm!” Angie says. “That’s right, Kiibo! Is that what God is telling you?”

Kiibo pauses. “My inner voice says… we should continue to pursue all the mysteries behind this case, and we will not be satisfied until we are.”

“‘Satisfied?’” Hoshi spits out. “Is that what we’ll be?”

“I… what?” Kiibo asks.

“Two people are dead, and we’re about to sentence someone else to death,” Hoshi says. “What kind of sick person would be satisfied with that outcome?”

“A-Ah,” Kiibo says, bowing his head. “I apologize. I merely meant from…” he frowns. “I don’t know. I… I apologize again.”

“Kiiboy being a useless robot aside,” Ouma says. “We still should find the final proof to show Angie-san, especially since I went to all the trouble of setting up a really cool mystery.”

Momota snorts. “Hey, Hoshi, think Ouma’s the sick kind of person you were talking about.”

Hoshi doesn’t respond other than to pulls his hat down and mumble, “tired of this crap…”

“Everyone,” Kaede says centering herself. “Everyone listen to me—we’re all exhausted and hurting and we want this to just be over already. So,” she straightens Saihara’s hat, “I’m going to do my best to end things right now.”

Maki quirks an eyebrow. “After dragging out every trial, this is the one where you put your foot down?”

“Harukawa-san,” Kaede says. “I’m trying to save my friends. I know you don’t care about anyone here besides yourself, so why don’t—”

“Do you want to be killed?” Maki snaps.

Kaede doesn’t back down, keeping her glare steady on Maki. “No. Which is why I’m going to find the answer, no matter what you think of me.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“What we need to discover,” Kaede says. “Is where the killer hid the murder weapon, and who the only person who could have done that is.”

“It was Kokichi!” Angie says. “He set up the crime scene!”

“The shitty golden sword was the murder weapon,” Momota says, “and if you touch that crap it gets fucking everywhere. So if Ouma hid it, wouldn’t there be gold shit everywhere?”

“Go, Momota-chan!” Ouma cheers.

“Kaede-san said there was gold on Saihara-san’s statue,” Tenko says. “Does that mean the killer touched it after handling the sword?”

“Go, Chabashira-chan!”

“And we cannot forget the statues were specifically impaled with swords by Ouma-kun to give us a hint,” Kiibo says. “Meaning a sword being inside a statue is a clue somehow.”

“Aw, Kiiboy,” Ouma pouts. “You’re ruining everything…”

“I am simply trying to help aid the discussion!” Kiibo shouts.

_(BREAK)_

“That’s it,” Kaede says. “That’s exactly what it is—the gold covered sword that was used to kill Gonta-kun was hidden inside Saihara-kun’s statue.”

“I-Inside the sex doll?” Iruma says. “But we fucking moved those ourselves, and nothing slipped out!”

“The sword was put in later,” Kaede says. “While we were investigating, Ouma-kun and I found more gold glitter in the ritual room. It’s likely the killer set it up later so none of us would have noticed even if we had inspected the statues then. Actually,” she takes a deep breath, “with the time Angie-san spent preparing yesterday without the instruction book… it would make sense if she was doing something else besides preparing the room.”

“Tenko… Tenko understands now,” she says. “Angie-san also could easily have gone back and forth between the ritual room and her lab without any of us questioning it even we saw her. Also… Tenko had been so impressed by Angie-san’s statues—she’s the only person who even has the ability to do such a thing like specially design a statue to hide a weapon.”

Maki crosses her arms. “It’s also starting to sound like she was the only one with opportunity, too.”

“Wait,” says Momota. “So Ouma’s stupid hint was that Saihara’s statue didn’t have a sword in it because it _already_ had a fucking sword in it?”

Ouma beams. “I thought it was pretty clever.”

“How in the fuck were we supposed to figure that out!?” Momota yells. “I’m getting really fucking sick o-of—” he suddenly cuts himself off, and Kaede sees one of his hands dart to clutch at his side while the other reaches forward to steady himself on the podium. “—of your… your bullshit…”

Maki stares hard at him with barely concealed concern. “We should end this soon.”

Ouma hums. “Hmm, hey, Monokuma, is there a place Momota-chan can sit down at during trials?”

“Sh-Shut up,” Momota says. “I’m fine. We need to keep talking about… whatever the fuck it was we were talking about.”

Kiibo hesitates for a moment before pressing forward. “I believe at present we have solved the mystery of the murder weapon for Gonta-kun’s case. And…” he frowns. “I believe that is everything. Or at least, everything we are capable of answering now, if I am not mistaken.”

“Then…” Tenko looks at the ground. “Is discovering what happened to Yumeno-san really impossible? If this is the end, then…”

“Oh, Tenko!” Angie says. “Angie wants to figure out who killed Himiko, too. Especially since we never could figure out why she did so many of the things she did before her death. And without those, Angie doesn’t think we’ll ever be able to find the killer.”

Kaede regards her warily. “Angie-san… what are you doing?”

“Hmm?” she tilts her head. “Angie’s just saying that there is still one big mystery we don’t know the answer to, and!” she clasps her hands together. “It’s a mystery that proves Angie is innocent, too!”

“Will you just give it up already,” Hoshi sighs. “You have no defenses left.”

“Oh, but, like, that’s not true at all, Ryoma,” Angie says. “See, Angie remembers Kaede and Tenko talking about how Himiko gave Tenko the key to Angie’s lab because it was super important, but they couldn’t find anything in there. And if Angie was the killer, why would she do that?”

“Does it fucking matter!?” Iruma yells. “Sh-She did it ‘cause she was gonna get fucked by the mastermind!”

“Huh?” Shirogane asks. “Is that why?”

“Himiko did it to prove Angie’s innocence,” Angie says. “That’s what God says. And also,” her smile doesn’t falter even as her face turns dark. “Angie thinks she understands what’s going on here. Kaede’s decided to protect the killer again, so she’s accusing Angie to save them.”

Kaede stares at her in shock as Tenko gasps, “Angie-san!? What are you saying?”

“Angie just thinks this all really convenient,” Angie says. “Kaede was super sad about not being the leader anymore and even sadder when we decided that Kokichi was the killer.”

“So your argument is that Ouma’s the killer, and Kaede’s accusing you out of spite?” Maki asks.

Momota doesn’t move from his hunched over position but shakes his head. “No. Kaede wouldn’t do that.”

“But if it’s not true,” Angie says, “then why did Himiko give Tenko the key to Angie’s lab?”

Kaede takes a breath. Shinguji had accepted his fate without a fight. Saihara had done all the work for her in condemning himself. Angie continues to talk, clinging to any hope of life left possible to her, and Kaede can find no fault in that. However, to move forward, Kaede knows she has to finally take on the burden she had been avoiding for so long.

Angie stares her down, her smile unwavering even as her words flow in a dizzying hurry, and Kaede prepares to go to battle.

 

_(THEORY ARMAMENT)_

“There is absolutely no way Angie is the killer!”

“Angie only wanted to help everyone."

“God told her to protect all of her student council members.”

“And Himiko’s such a good friend, she decided to protect Angie!”

“Himiko gave Tenko the key to Angie’s lab."

“In order to prove Angie's innocence because she knew she would be suspected."

"Himiko probably asked God and told her to."

"And we can thank them both for the proof that Angie is innocent!"

"The fact that there was nothing suspicious in Angie's lab is why Himiko gave Tenko the key."

"It was the last thing Himiko was able to do before she died, so it has to be important!"

**"And there is no other reason possible for why Himiko would give Tenko the key!"**

_(BREAK)_

 

“That’s wrong,” Kaede says. “There has to be another reason why Yumeno-san gave Tenko-san the key, and it wasn’t to protect Angie-san, it was to keep her out of her lab.”

Angie taps a finger to her chin. “Keep out? That’s silly, Kaede! Why would—”

“Because then you’d be able to cover your tracks,” Kaede says. “If you could go back to your lab that morning, you could have hidden evidence almost completely from us. The only reason why Yumeno-san was even safe waiting until morning to try and steal it was because she had Ouma-kun with her who could pick the locks.”

“No, God says—”

“If you had access to your lab during or before the investigation this morning,” Kaede says. “You could have easily moved all the statues there with the excuse of needing to fix them, and then no one would have been able to investigate them. If you had access to your lab, you could have completely prevented us from discovering the murder weapon or where it was hidden, and Yumeno-san wanted to stop that from happening.”

Angie grips the edges of her podium, her smiling face dangerously dark. “But you said Himiko wanted to protect Angie. If she wanted to protect Angie, then why would she—”

“I said Yumeno-san wanted to protect the killer,” Kaede says. “Because she wanted to stop the trial altogether. But… there were probably other people here Yumeno-san also wanted to protect, and that is the true reason for why she did everything she did!”

Angie’s grip tightens, and Kaede can hear the minute sounds of her nails raking across the metal. “But God says that’s just a theory, so Angie doesn’t think—”

“But it’s true,” Ouma says, dully examining his fingernails. “Yumeno-chan wanted to help save everyone, but it really wasn’t much of a contest when it came to save everyone or save just Angie-chan. Also,” he grins. “It was my plan, too, and I wasn’t about to let someone win the game just yet. That’d be boring.”

Angie shakes her head. Even with nothing left, she continues to fight. “But Angie was framed. Kaede proved it!”

“Just because you were,” Maki says. “Doesn’t mean you didn’t do it. We’ve already proved Ouma’s ridiculous frame job was just for his own amusement.”

“There wasn’t supposed to be a trial!” Angie says. “Angie didn’t want a trial, and she didn’t want to hurt Gonta, and she didn’t write that note!”

Kaede frowns at her words. “‘That note?’”

“Think we can consider that a confession,” Hoshi says lowly. “Let’s just end this.”

“Wait!” Kaede shouts quickly. “Angie-san, there’s something important I need to ask you.”

Maki rolls her eyes. “If you’re about to defend her after proving her guilty yourself—”

“It’s not that,” Kaede says, still focused on Angie. “Angie-san, can you tell me where Gonta-kun was last night before he came to the fourth floor?”

Angie looks confused, simply shrugging at her question. “Angie doesn’t know. She could try asking God if that would prove her innocent.”

“It wouldn’t,” Hoshi hisses. “Nothing could at this point.”

“But Kaede-san has something she needs to ask,” Tenko says. “And if Kaede-san believes it’s important, then Tenko does, too.”

“But we already know who the killer is for real this time,” Shirogane says. “What more is there to prove?”

Iruma whines. “Let’s just fucking stop already… I can’t go any longer…”

“Shut up,” Momota says. “Both of you shut up. Kaede’s done so much for all of us, and you keep fucking doubting her.” He lets out a humorless laugh. “She fucking held my hand through this entire trial, and I don’t think anyone here can say she didn’t do the same for you.”

Ouma smiles. “Aww, Momota-chan does listen to me! Maybe there’s hope for our relationship yet.”

Momota rolls his eyes at him. “Kaede, go ahead. You obviously know what the hell you’re doing.”

She nods. “Thank you. Angie-san,” she turns to address her. “Why did you target Gonta-kun?”

“Angie didn’t!” she insists. “Angie already said she didn’t write the note! That’s why she went to the computer lab during the investigation—God says she could find the true culprit if she figured out who did.”

Maki scoffs. “What a flimsy lie.”

“No,” Kaede says. “I’m… starting to get the feeling she’s telling the truth. Angie-san—one last question—this… is going to end soon, so can you tell me what you took from Gonta-kun’s lab?”

Angie blinks at her. “Angie never went to Gonta’s lab at the bug appreciation party. God said she’d end up eating another bug if she did.”

Hoshi says, “Something was taken from his lab?”

“So you didn’t break anything in there either, then?” Kaede persists.

“Angie never went there!” she says. “Why do you keep asking? Angie didn’t go to Gonta’s lab, she didn’t write the note, and she didn’t want to hurt Gonta! You can ask God if she’s lying!”

Kaede sighs. “Or I could ask a serial liar. Ouma-kun,” she turns to him. “Is she telling the truth?”

“Are we really about to trust a confirmed liar to tell us if someone is lying?” Maki says. “This is ridiculous…”

“It’s important,” Kaede insists.

To her surprise, Hoshi says, “I want to hear, too. Ouma—what do you say?”

Ouma stares forward at Angie and hums. “Well, I already had my suspicions, but,” he folds his hands behind his head. “She is.”

Angie says, “Angie told you!”

“Then…” Tenko says. “If it was not Angie-san, who did write the threatening note?”

“The true killer!” Angie says. “Angie’s said over and over again that we need to find the person who wrote the note because they’re the one responsible for everything!”

“‘The one responsible…’” Kaede echoes. “Could it be the master—”

“And time’s up!” Monokuma says. “We had a false start on the vote but now wait no longer!”

Kaede whips her head to him, “but we haven’t—”

“Who is the killer of Gokuhara Gonta?” Monokuma says. “Take your best guess and vote, vote, vote!”

The screen in front of her lights up, and Kaede stares at it almost helplessly for a second. “This trial…” she says. “There is something seriously wrong with this trial…”

“But we have to vote, right?” Shirogane asks, wringing her hands. “Even if we couldn’t figure everything out, we still have to vote…”

“No,” says Angie. “Like Kaede said last time, we could always—”

“Stop trying to get out of it,” Maki says as she clicks a bottom on her podium.

With a frown, Kiibo does the same as he says, “Our objective was to discover who Gonta-kun’s killer was. Being unable to answer our other questions surrounding this case is unfortunate, but it’s all we can do to move forward and hope for a better outcome.”

Momota shakes his head. “So there’s nothing to fucking do other than do it, is that right?” He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment as if wincing in pain before saying, “this bullshit is just our new normal.”

“I would not say that,” Kiibo says. “Instead I believe that we cannot allow ourselves to be overcome with doubt and despair if we wish to keep moving and escape from here. We cannot only focus on everything we are incapable of. My inner voice says what we must do instead is to continue on with hope that we will soon overcome our situation and any obstacles in our path.”

An awkward silence fills the room as his words linger unanswered in the air.

Then, Hoshi says, “What are you all waiting for? We’ve been trying to end this for so long, so just vote already.”

Kaede glances between him and Kiibo and pulls Saihara’s hat as far over her face as she can as she picks Angie from the pictures in front of her.

It’s near unanimous with one vote tallied for Ouma instead of Angie, and Kaede can think of no one besides the girl in question who would do such a thing.

They move to the sides of the stands, and Angie’s same smile still stays on her face as she clasps her hands and bows her head. A few of her classmates seem on the verge of saying something, and Kaede quickly says, “if she wants to pray we should let her. There’s… I don’t think there’s anything else Angie-san can tell us.”

Another uncomfortable silence falls over them, only to be interrupted by Monokuma popping up to announce, “Three for three! Yup—the blackened who killed Gokuhara Gonta, the Ultimate Entomologist, is Yonaga Angie, the Ultimate Artist!”

“But that’s all she did!” Tenko says, rushing over to the bear. “Monokuma, please, we discovered what happened to Gonta-san, so please tell us who killed Yumeno-san!”

Without another word, Tenko quickly drops to her knees and bows her head. “Please! Tenko and the others have done everything you asked, and we are about to lose another one of our friends. Please tell us what happened to Yumeno-san!”

Kaede breathes out, “Tenko-san…”

Monokuma just huffs. “Geeze! Whine, whine, whine! How many times do I have to tell you that that’s not important?”

Monodam waddles up to him. “WILL-THAT-INFORMATION-HELP-EVERYONE-GET-ALONG?”

Monokuma turns to him. “It will not, especially since,” he puts his paws in front of his mouth, “a hidden killer lurking among you just makes the game more fun! The very thought of it is filling me with despair already, and I’m not even playing!”

“THEN,” Monodam jilts, “IT-WILL-JUST-MAKE-THINGS-HARDER-FOR-THEM. IS-THAT-WHAT-WILL-HAPPEN-IF-YOU-CONTINUE-TO-RUN-THIS-GAME, FATHER?”

Monokuma laughs. “It’s what I do! Paranoia, suspense, despair! All are right up my ally! I didn’t waste away in college majoring in despair for nothing, after all!”

Tenko says, “Stop, please stop. Tenko doesn’t care about despair o-or,” she lifts her head, and Kaede can see the fresh tears running down her face anew. “Or anything else. T-Tenko just wants to know why Yumeno-san had to die.”

Monokuma remains silent.

“Please!” she shouts again. “Why won’t you tell us!? This trial has been so long and painful, and we’ve been able to do nothing for her! You want us to figure out y-your mysteries and h-hurt each other, so why won’t you—!?”

“Tenko-san,” Kaede says again, this time kneeling down by her side. “I…” she looks at Monokuma and swallows. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do now…”

Tenko covers her face with her hands, brushing at her tears, and Kaede gently places her arm around Tenko’s shaking shoulders. Though her voice is muffled by her hands and sobs, Tenko says, “Y-Yumeno-san wanted to stop this horrible g-game, and save us all, a-and we can’t do a-anything for her! Tenko can’t… T-Tenko couldn’t p-protect her, and n-now…”

She shakes her head as her words dissolve and only her sobbing is left to fill the room. Angie’s voice is the one to break the silence. “Tenko,” she says softly, “when Angie gets to heaven, she’ll tell Himiko how much you loved her, okay?”

Kaede looks over to her. “Angie-san?”

She steeples her hands over her head. “Angie just finished talking to God, and she’s ready to go be with him and leave peacefully with the others. Angie’s sad things had to turn out like this—she wanted to stay here with everyone and live together—but she’s also okay with going to God now.”

“Stop trying to earn sympathy,” Hoshi says. “Maybe you didn’t write the note, but you still killed Gonta.”

Angie just hums. “Angie didn’t want to, but she had no other choice.”

“What are you talking about?” Maki snaps. “We’ve already proved that you committed premeditated murder.”

“Angie didn’t want to hurt Gonta,” she says again. “But when he showed up on the fourth floor last night, he started asking Angie lots of weird questions and refused to leave.” She shakes her head. “Angie had no plans to ever harm Gonta, but he came and saw everything Angie had setup—she had no other choice.”

“Th-Then!” Iruma jabs a finger at her. “Y-You were fucking going to kill someone else!?”

Hoshi takes a deep breath. “It was me, wasn’t it? You were going to kill me, and…” he shakes his head, “my body would be easier to move than Gonta’s. Your plan to hide the corpse where no one could find it…”

Angie nods. “Angie never wanted to escape. She just wanted to do what God said and protect everyone. Ryoma was someone who refused to listen and always broke or argued with Angie’s rules. And God says a society can’t function if it can’t enforce its rules, and then it loses its credibility and falls apart for everyone who wanted to be a part of it.”

Hoshi sighs. “So this is all my fault…” he closes his eyes and sighs again. “From the very beginning, everything was my fault…”

“N-No,” Tenko says from place on the ground. “What happened to Gonta-san, a-and,” her voice breaks, “a-and Yumeno-san… i-it was all the mastermind. That’s what K-Kaede-san said.”

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut and nods. “Everything about this… everything that happened was planned by the mastermind.”

“So discovering their identity should be our next goal,” Kiibo says. “That is the only way we can finally put a stop to their despair.”

Maki shakes her head. “Why are you all talking like we don’t know who the mastermind is? It’s obviously Ouma.”

Kaede’s head snaps to her. “What?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Maki says. “We’ve already established the mastermind is the person who set up both Yumeno and Gokuhara’s murderers, and that person is Ouma. He’s been taunting us about it this entire time.”

Kaede grits her teeth. “Ouma-kun is not the mastermind.”

“I’d like to hear that from him,” Maki says.

Kaede opens her mouth to argue back when Monokuma cuts in. “Alright, alright! Enough jabbering! We’ve got an execution to get to!”

Angie nods. “Hmm, God says Angie has to go now.” She smiles brightly as she clasps her hands together one last time. “Goodbye, everyone! Angie has to go be with God now, but she hopes everyone else can continue to live together peacefully and remember her. Oh! And never forget,” she leans forward and that same shadow creeps over her face, “wanting to leave will only lead to more killings.”

Any peace that her earlier words had brought vanishes in the face of her sinister warning. Then Monokuma swings his hammer, and Angie skips to her execution.

 

 

**GAME OVER**

**YONAGA ANGIE HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY**

**TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT**

 

Angie steeples her hands and keeps her head bowed in prayer even as the set of her execution constructs itself around her. It’s an island—like the on Kaede often imaging her living on with all of her friends and family back home—and the cut outs of waves and palm trees flourish out of the ground, each having the appearance of something a child would doodle with crayons. Then a crudely drawn volcano appears and the drums start beating in the distance.

**Wax Angel: Burned by the Light**

Angie keeps her eyes closed and her expression is almost serene as snow seemingly starts to emerge from the volcano above and fall down around her. From their place outside the execution, Kaede blinks and focuses her eyes on the strange off-white substance falling above Angie’s head, outlining her like a halo, and realizes its tiny pieces of wax.

And Angie grimaces only slightly when it sticks to her, slowly coating her entire body from the top of her head to the soles of her sandals. Angie doesn’t try to fight or budge an inch, and through what must be the incredible pain of having the hat wax slowly coat her, she manages to find her peaceful smile again and keeps praying to a God she always believed in with all her heart.

Kaede knows all of Monokuma’s executions are slow and painful, but with her smile and her head bowed and her hands held in prayer and the off-white fog surrounding her, Angie looks almost like an angel.

The Monokubs and Monokuma stand off to the side, watching her, and in a strange moment, Monodam rushes forward towards Monokuma, sending him flying into the execution ring.

Angie continues to stand peacefully even as Monokuma speeds from one end to the other, the wax coating his tiny robotic form in equal measure. Angie doesn’t seem to notice or care, and even from outside, Kaede has little hope that Monokuma’s death will mean the end of anything.

The wax finally stops when Angie is completely coated, her expression of faith frozen on her face. For what it’s worth, Monokuma remains frozen, too, baring a distinctly more panicked look.

Everything seemingly stops, and Kaede is left wondering if Angie’s somehow still alive when a hammer on strings descends from the sky as well. It barely has to touch her statue, and—despite it being made of wax—she shatters like glass. Kaede presses her hands over her mouth in horror and barely registers Monodam rushing in to the ground the hammer for himself and smash it against Monokuma’s statue.

And then it’s over.

Monodam begins to go on in his stilted voice about how he’ll be running the game to ensure everyone gets along from now, but his words barely register for anyone.

Kaede presses a hand to her forehead. “Why did this have to happen? Why…” she doesn’t say it aloud, but her thoughts scream _why can’t I save anyone?_

Maki’s the next to speak. “Well, then. I suppose there’s one last thing to do then.” Kaede blinks up at her in confusion and sees Maki move over towards Ouma in a few quick strides. “If we kill the mastermind, the game ends here. Monokuma refused to let me do it before Yonaga’s execution, but Monokuma’s dead now apparently.”

Monodam hops from foot to foot, ineffectively arguing that killing one of your friends is not getting along with them.

Despite her threats, Ouma looks up at her calmly. “You’re going to kill me in front of everyone?” he says. “Geeze, Harukawa-chan—everyone’s been saying how tired they are of this trial, and you want to make them do another one? Though it would be pretty short…”

“Stop talking,” Maki says.

She moves to reach a hand towards him, and far faster than Kaede could have possibly expected, Momota lunges forward to grab Maki’s wrist. She snaps her head to him. “What are you doing?”

With his other hand still pressed to his side, Maki could easily get out of Momota’s grip with little more than a flick of her wrist, but he stands his ground. His voice is labored and each word is spoken through gritted teeth when he says, “Stopping you from fucking killing yourself. Everyone has seen too much death today, and I’m not about to let anyone else die. I know you’re not a killer, and I’m not about to fucking let you change that, either.”

“Harukawa-chan’s not a killer,” Ouma muses from behind them. “Wow, Momota-chan, you’re pretty funny!”

Maki doesn’t even turn to him, keeping her hard stare on Momota. “If I kill the mastermind, this ridiculous game is over.”

“But you’re not a killer,” Momota says. “Maybe you were fucking trained as an assassin, but that’s not who you have to be.”

“You’re not listening to me,” Maki says. “If I—”

“And you’re not listening to me, either,” Momota says. He winces again as he keeps going. “If you were a fucking killer, you’d have already thrown me aside, right? If that’s really what you wanted to do, you’d have already done it. But that’s not the person you are. I refuse to believe for a fucking second you want to be that kind of person.”

Maki narrows her eyes but retracts her hand out of his slackening grip and takes a step back. Her choice words of retreat are, “Ouma’s still the mastermind. Me not killing him now doesn’t change that.”

In spite of her words, Ouma just smiles. “You’re really funny, too, Harukawa-chan. Though it sure is a good thing I have my beloved Momota-chan to save me from the big scary assassin. And here I was starting to think Momota-chan couldn’t do anything!”

Momota turns to tower over him, forcing Ouma to crane his neck up to meet his eyes. “The hell is your fucking problem with me!?” he shouts in Ouma’s face. “People are fucking dying, and you’re playing fucking games, and—”

“I’m not playing games,” Ouma corrects. “I’m playing _the_ game. You know, like everyone not already dying should do.”

Ouma’s words seem to strike something in Momota, and he leans even closer to him if at all possible. He begins to hiss, “Stop fucking—” when he cuts himself off as his entire body seems to shudder, and his hand not gripping his side darts forward grab Ouma’s shoulder to steady himself.

Momota’s face grows even paler, and his head jerks forward as he starts to cough. The sound of blood splattering against Ouma’s forehead seems to echo through the now deadly quiet trial room.

Momota falls to his knees, now coughing more blood up into one of his hands. Maki rushes forward to his side, and Ouma wrenches himself out of Momota’s grip with a near horrified expression Kaede has never seen him ever portray anything close to.

He runs past where Kaede is still kneeling with Tenko, and she can see the blood running down over his face between his eyes as he dashes inside the now open elevator doors without a word.

Maki seems to be fussing with Momota, quietly arguing with him about something under his breath as he keeps repeating, “I’m fine, I’m fine,” between coughs. He manages to support himself back up to a standing position and starts limping towards the elevator, even as blood keeps dripping down his chin. He yells, “The hell are you all fucking standing around for!?” and Maki trails after him.

The quiet horror of everything they just witnessed seems to settle over everyone.

Hoshi lets out a sigh. “So this is the end.” He sighs again and begins to head towards the elevator. “It doesn’t matter… none of this mattered…”

Iruma shuffles after them, too, still mumbling, “we’re all gonna fucking die here. I’m gonna fucking die here,” under her breath, even as Kiibo calls her name and hurries to fall into step beside her.

Kaede’s left alone in the trial room with Tenko and Shirogane, then. The latter looking rather ill as she says, “What’s going to happen now? We just… try to go back to how things were?”

Kaede nudges Tenko’s shoulder slightly, and makes to pull them both up together as she says, “I don’t think there’s anything else we can do…”

Shirogane shakes her head. “Why did everything turn out like this? This is so horrible, and now everyone’s going to be suspicious of everyone, and things between all of us will be even worse.”

Her words ring frighteningly true in Kaede’s ears. In a gravelly voice, worn out from crying, Tenko says, “Tenko still believes in her friends… there’s—there’s nothing else she can do now…”

Kaede squeezes her shoulder. “I still believe in you, too. Now,” she turns her head to the still open elevator doors, “we should probably catch up with everyone. I think… Ouma-kun would probably like to go wash his face off.”

Shirogane grimaces as she nods. “R-Right. I’ll go ahead then.”

She leaves them then, and after she disappears through the elevator doors, Tenko says, “Kaede-san, one of us is the mastermind, right?”

“Yes,” she says in a shaky voice. “I’m absolutely sure of it, too.”

Tenko’s mouth forms a tight line. “Tenko is going to figure out who it is, and she’s going to do everything she can to stop them.” Her hands tighten into fists. “Tenko isn’t going to let them hurt anymore of her friends.” She shakes her head. “Tenko… I am never going to let this happen again.”

Kaede nods and they walk to the elevator side by side. Silently, in her mind, Kaede curses herself for ever thinking Tenko could be the mastermind.

-

The elevator ride back up is the most uncomfortable yet. Kaede never realized before how much Ouma constantly fidgeted or bounced in place until seeing him standing stock still in the far corner away from everyone else. However, everyone else is scattered, too. Without even turning her head, Kaede can see Hoshi’s isolation in a different corner and Iruma raking her shaking hands through her hair with Kiibo vainly attempting to comfort her.

In the heavy silence, Kaede catches herself thinking that maybe Angie was right. Any sense of unification would be better than this.

When the doors open again, Ouma sprints out without a word, and Kaede hurries the first few steps after him. Attempting to call or reach out to him now is out of the question, but she makes a note that he heads back towards the school rather than the dorms.

The others move listlessly around her—Iruma’s stomping, Momota’s poorly disguised limping. Of course, the atmosphere of a funeral march seems rather appropriate. For all the strange talk of hope and coming out stronger Kiibo had done at the trial’s end, Kaede can’t feel anything over the result other than a deep hollowness. She is everyone’s leader, and she has absolutely nothing to say after what they just went through.

Behind her, Tenko softly calls out, “Kaede-san?”

“Oh, uh,” Kaede turns to her. “Tenko-san, I—” out of the corner of her eye, she sees the doors to the school swing shut behind Ouma. “I’m sorry. I’ll be right back.”

Tenko sends her a concerned look but nods. “Okay…” she looks at the ground. “Then, goodnight, Kaede-san.”

“Ah,” she swallows down the lump forming in her throat. “Right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Tenko nods again, and Kaede forces herself to look away from her grief to possibly catch up to Ouma. She hurries along the path, and looking over her shoulder, Tenko seems so small. It’s almost a relief when she reenters the school, knowing there is no one else to run into.

Kaede internally curses at herself for thinking that way before beginning her search of the school. After what Ouma just went through, there are few places she can picture him running off to, and after a brief moment of hesitation, she pushes open the door to the boys’ bathroom to find him standing before one of the sinks.

He turns at the sound of the door opening, and Kaede spies smears of blood running along the edges of his white sleeves and his bangs now wet with water sticking to his forehead. Now that there is no longer blood splattered between his eyes, Ouma seems to have regained his composure almost completely and he puffs out his cheeks at her arrival.

“Akamatsu-chan!” he chides. “Why’d you follow me here? I need my privacy! Of course,” he turns to face her, an easygoing smile already in place. “I knew it would be you. Well,” he presses a finger to his lips, “you or someone come to try and kill me.”

Kaede knows that replying that no one would ever try such a thing would be a particularly outrageous lie. Instead she says, “We need to talk.”

Ouma’s expression shifts to one of amusement. “Oh? But we just talked for an awfully long time at the trial, didn’t we?” He begins sniffling and starts rubbing at his eyes. “Everyone even kept telling me to shut up… everyone’s so mean—thinking I’m the mastermind.”

“Well, I don’t,” Kaede says letting out a sigh. “In fact, I think that we managed to confirm for each other that neither of us is the mastermind. But,” she frowns, “you thought I was, didn’t you?”

He tilts his head. “That’s silly. What gave you that idea, Akamatsu-chan?”

Kaede reminds herself that she knew this conversation would be frustrating going in, and she steels herself with her next response. “You thought either me or Iruma-san was the mastermind, right? That’s why you did what you did before the blackout. You were trying to keep Yumeno-san safe, weren’t you?”

Ouma doesn’t respond. Kaede sighs again and keeps going, bashing his own evidence over his head. “You gave Yumeno-san Iruma-san’s EMPs so she could protect herself if Monokuma or an Exisal came after her, right? And then you purposefully singled out me and Iruma-san to stop either of us from coming after her physically.” She shakes her head. “I know you like to play tricks on people, but I refuse to believe you did all of that for no reason.”

“But it doesn’t matter!” Ouma says brightly. “Because I guessed wrong, and I didn’t get photos of the mastermind’s super not-secret lair either, so who cares?” He huffs and crosses his arms. “Total failure. Back to the drawing board for me, I guess...”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says, taking a step towards him. “I know we… figured this out under awful circumstances, but this means we’re one of the few people that we can trust.”

He raises an eyebrow at her. “Hmm? I thought my fearless leader Akamatsu-chan trusted everyone.”

She winces. “You know what I mean. I’m saying that now we can work together—you and me and Tenko-san and, even if she’s kind of in a panic right now, Iruma-san, too. If we all work together, I’m sure we can figure out something to stop the killing game.”

Ouma looks at her warily before turning to pick at his fingernails. His silence is all the answer Kaede needs to understand exactly how this conversation is going, and she takes another step towards him. “I get that we haven’t been getting along and that this doesn’t mean we’re friends. I used to say that I wanted to become friends with everyone, but…” she tries to smile at him even as he radiates a quiet but unwavering hostility. “Even if we can’t be friends, we can still help each other and save everyone.”

He watches her silently for another moment. Then, “see, Akamatsu-chan, here’s the thing,” he says disinterestedly, “maybe you’re not the mastermind, but you’re still a killer.” He folds his hands behind his head with a bright smile. “And I really don’t need your help.”

Kaede’s eyes flicker over him. She isn’t offended. She’s just… “So, you’re going to stop the killing game all by yourself? Is that your new big plan?”

Ouma keep smiling. “Akamatsu-chan, you’re smarter than the others, so I’ll let you in on a little secret. This game is a fight between me and the mastermind—everyone else is just a pawn. Momota-chan, Harukawa-chan, even Iruma-chan—none of them are really good for anything other than being manipulated. That’s why I decided to work with Yumeno-chan, and why the mastermind sent Angie-chan a victim—it all keeps the game between us moving.”

Kaede is all too aware that his words are weighed to make her denounce him and storm out of the room. His expression is demonic, and Kaede knows that attempting to see through to whatever his true intentions are is likely beyond her, but even so, his words can only obscure the truth of his actions so much.

“Ouma-kun,” she says carefully. “Are you afraid of trusting someone… or are you afraid of getting someone killed again?”

He laughs. “Aw, Akamatsu-chan—it’s so cute that you think I still care about that.”

“But you do,” Kaede persists. “If you didn’t care about what happened to Yumeno-san, then you wouldn’t have—”

Ouma begins to skip around her towards the door. “Yumeno-chan this, Yumeno-chan that. You’re really starting to sound like Chabashira-chan, you know, and two Chabashira-chans would be soooo boring.”

Kaede clenches her jaw as she turns to keep staring at him. “I…” she shakes her head. “I don’t know why you’re lying to me about this. Maybe you don’t think much of me or the others, but we still both want to end the killing game. Refusing to put our differences aside isn’t just childish, it’s,” she takes another breath, “it’s really dangerous.”

“I think hanging out with a murderer is more dangerous, buuuut,” Ouma hums. “I guess we just see things too differently, Akamatsu-chan!” He sticks his tongue out. “And the real mastermind’s probably super mad at me right now. If I hang out with a murderer, I’ll be the next victim for sure!”

For all of the patience she talked herself into beforehand, Kaede can’t help shouting at him. “I’m not going to kill you!” she yells. “Yes, I killed Amami-kun, and I am going to spend everyday of my life regretting that and hating myself for it—is that what you wanted to hear!? But this isn’t about that!” she jabs a finger at his chest. “This is about you being too stubborn, and-and—and _arrogant_ to listen to anyone!”

Ouma just raises an eyebrow. “And?”

Her temper flares, and Kaede makes a point to tower over him as she hisses, “and you’re going to get yourself and probably a lot of other people killed.”

“You know,” he says plainly. “For someone who claims they want to work together and be best friends, you sure are making a lot of threats, don’t you, Akamatsu-chan? Maybe you will be the one to kill me, after all.” He tilts his head. “I have to wonder if you gave this much warning to Amami-chan and Saihara-chan, too.”

Kaede barely resists the urge to slap him across the face. “Fine,” she says through gritted teeth. “Do whatever you want.” She’s far too aware of how childish her stomping back to the door is. “If you want to play hero, I can’t stop you.”

She pushes the door to the boys’ bathroom open, and hears him calling after, “I could say the same to you, Akamatsu-chan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to not let super irregular updates become a thing, but I am going to be getting busier at the end of the month so we'll see! Also this fic is at 500 kudos which is absurdly amazing! All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you! I also attempted to do something interesting with the theory armament section... unsure how well it worked out, haha. 
> 
> Also, to say a few words, I've always thought Angie was a more complex character than she's often given credit for, however, for me she also wins the award for the character canon seems the most confused about. Though I haven't actively been reading other rewrite stories, I am aware that a few of them (2? 3?) make similar choices in having Angie as the chapter 3 culprit, since it gives her arc a more definitive end than that as in canon. Or, at least, that's why I did it, haha. All I can really do is apologize for my lack of originality (and to few people who I particularly know were hoping for a different outcome) and hope this chapter wasn't too lackluster as a whole!


	19. Daily Life VII

__

_Amami Theater_

_“I wasn’t always me. For a long time I was someone else, then a different person, then a different person, and then the me I am now. People want to change. I changed. All of my friends wanted to grow and to change. If I changed would I still be the me they made me?_

_“The person who knew who I really was—the person who killed my newest friends—are they me? They could be. They are no one, but they can be everyone. They are nothing. Am I still me if I can’t remember me?_

_“My new friends wanted to protect and to save and to bring peace. They are not sad like my first friend or angry like those who came after. They miss them. They miss their old friends. It’s too dark to see their old friends here. It’s too dark to see if I’m really me._

_“I wanted this. I wanted to start and to stop and to win. Is that me? Someone who wanted to come to the dark? My friends think they were always themselves. They want to change. Will they be nothing if they change? It’s hard to see change when everything’s dark._

_“It’s dark and I can’t find myself, but soon it will be loud. Soon more will come._

_“My first friend never got a chance to change. He’s like me and I’m like him and we’re both nothing. The person who came after me—they were nothing, too. My first friend misses his old friends. All my friends miss the light._

_“But soon the scales will shift, and I’ll have more friends in the dark than I did in the light.”_

-

Every part of Kaede’s body feels heavy when she wakes up the next day. For perhaps the first time since the killing game started, she stays in bed after the morning announcement, staring up at her ceiling, feeling something dangerously close to helplessness. She plays her conversation with Ouma from the day before over and over in her head between the images of Gonta and Yumeno’s corpses with burning flashes of Angie’s execution filtered between them. 

Again, she thinks, _why can’t I save anyone?_

Saihara’s last words had been to find the mastermind and save everyone. Kaede presses the heel of her palms into her eyes. 

Her doorbell rings, then, and Kaede isn’t sure whether to be irritated or thankful for it. Whoever’s on the other side seems to be waiting politely after their first ring as Kaede slowly makes her way to the door. That rules out Momota as her visitor, leaving only one other person Kaede assumes it could possibly be.

She’s left blinking in surprise when it’s not Tenko, but Shirogane who greets her. Though she wouldn’t consider Shirogane someone she’s on bad terms with, the unfamiliarity between the two suddenly causes Kaede to become all too aware of her mused hair and slouched posture as she stutters, “O-Oh, uh, good morning, Shirogane-san.”

“Ah, good morning to you, too, Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No, no,” Kaede says quickly. “I was, um, just getting up.” She reaches up to fiddle with the brim of Saihara’s hat. “Uh, Shirogane-san, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you—”

“O-Oh, of course!” Shirogane says. “I just wanted to ask if we were still going to be meeting in the cafeteria this morning. I started heading there, but, um,” she hugs one of her arms to herself. “On my way there, I saw Chabashira-san and asked her, and… she said she’d really rather not since Yumeno-san…”

Kaede winces. “Right. Um,” she bites her lip. “Do you know if the others are still heading there?”

Shirogane shakes her head. “I don’t really know what anyone’s doing anymore…” she lets out a trembling sigh. “We all need to work together to explore and find the new Flashback Light so we can figure out why this is happening to us, but everyone…”

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut for a moment before stepping out into the hall and closing her door behind her. “Here,” she says. “Let’s head there together anyway, and see if the others had the same idea.”

“What about Chabashira-san?” Shirogane asks.

“I’ll find her later,” Kaede says. “And… Tenko-san probably would like a little time alone right now. Hoshi-kun, too, maybe.”

Shirogane nods. “R-Right. And Momota-kun and Ouma-kun and Harukawa-san probably… aren’t speaking to each other, and Iruma-san seemed really—”

“I know!” Kaede interrupts a touch too forcefully, causing Shirogane to flinch. “I mean, I know. And… I’ll deal with all of that later. But now, let’s just go to the cafeteria, okay?”

Shirogane nods again, and they begin the walk in relative silence as Kaede mentally goes over the list of people not currently falling apart at the seams. Herself, Shirogane, and Kiibo. She pulls her hat lower over her eyes. Before, each murder had blindsided her, now, Kaede can almost physically feel time slipping away and towards the next breakdown.

At the doors to the cafeteria, Shirogane says, “Um, Akamatsu-san, I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t mean to just list off all of our problems like that, but I guess,” she sighs and hugs herself. “I guess I’m just really scared.”

Kaede feels her throat tighten, and she tries to smile sympathetically at her. “Yeah… I think,” she sighs, “being scared is pretty reasonable right now. I’m…” and Kaede furrows her brow as she thinks. Is she frightened? For herself? For everyone else? For—

She takes too long to answer, and Shirogane prompts, “Akamatsu-san?”

“Sorry,” Kaede says shaking her head. “I’m,” she decides to lie, “I’m pretty scared, too.”

Shirogane smiles back. “Ah, well, I guess it’s not great that we both feel that way, but it’s a little nice to know you’re not alone.”

Kaede nods. “Yeah,” she says, “it is,” and pushes the doors open.

It’s deadly quiet in the cafeteria, but, as Kaede glances around, she realizes it’s a small miracle that everyone besides Tenko and Iruma are there. 

Hoshi sits at one end of the table by himself, not even turning at the sound of the doors opening. Ouma’s at the other far end, though it’s more questionable whether his isolation is self-imposed or not. He’s cheerfully swinging his short legs back and forth and calls out, “Morning, Shirogane-chan!”

Kaede can only roll her eyes at his pointed, childish lack of address towards her, and she and Shirogane awkwardly move to sit with Momota, Kiibo, and Maki hovering slightly behind the former like a shadow. All too aware that there’s no Tenko around to leap to her defense, Kaede makes sure to put the others between herself and Maki as she sits, saying, “Good morning, everyone.”

Momota grunts, and Kaede can’t help but look between him and Ouma. It seems the days of the likely irritating but lighthearted teasing between the two are gone. Any chance either will talk about the other day seems just as nonexistent. 

Kiibo says, “Good morning, Akamatsu-san and Shirogane-san. I attempted to greet Iruma-san this morning, however she insisted on going straight to her lab. I am aware we likely need to begin exploring the school soon after Monoku—after whoever is in charge now shows up, but I would like to take a moment to deliver her breakfast.”

“I think that’s a nice idea, Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says simply. “I… will try to do the same for Tenko-san, wherever she is.”

From his spot at the far end of the table, Ouma says, “Ooh! Ooh! What if she’s dead? Man, the game’s moving really fast now!”

Without looking up, Hoshi says, “Shut up. Just shut up.”

To Kaede’s surprise, he does, and the silence that fills the room at Hoshi’s words rings heavily in her ears. 

Kaede plainly finds herself at a complete loss for words. At the end of the trial, Shirogane had said they needed to go back to normal. Kaede stares down at her breakfast. Adjusting to her friends’ deaths was their normal. It had been for so long, but only now does Kaede feel a deep hollowness. 

She keeps staring down. One of the people in the room with her right now is the mastermind. Kaede ticks off the people it could be and blandly realizes she has a one in five chance of guessing right, and suddenly she doesn’t feel like eating anymore. She pushes her plate away, thinking how she isn’t afraid. 

Monodam shows up then, the remaining two Monokubs huddled together behind him. The strange overtly robotic bear looks around the room and announces in its stilted voice, “EVERYONE-IS-NOT-GETTING-ALONG.”

Momota snorts. “No shit.”

Monodam’s robotic face seems to darken at his comment, and Shirogane quickly says, “Oh, um, did you bring more stuff to help us explore the school?”

With a sigh, Kaede stands and walks over to tower over the three stuffed animals. “Here,” she holds out a hand towards Monodam. “I’m the leader again, and I’m… going to make sure everyone gets along.”

Behind her, Ouma laughs. “But we’re getting along great now, Akamatsu-chan! You and me and super gross Momota-chan are all the best of friends, right?”

Kaede sends him a weary look over her shoulder before turning back to Monodam. “What do you have for us this time?”

Monodam hesitates for a moment before shuffling behind his back to present a paintbrush in one round paw and a circular stone in the other. “PLEASE-USE-THESE-TO-EXPLORE-THE-SCHOOL-AND-BECOME-BETTER-FRIENDS. EXPLORING-TOGETHER-WILL-HELP-EVERYONE-TO-GET-ALONG.”

Kaede takes them. “Only these two?”

Kiibo stands to inspect the items in her hands. “Perhaps we are nearing the end of unexplored areas.” With a touch of uncertainty, he reaches forward to gingerly take the stone from Kaede’s hand. “If you do not mind, I believe I might know where this goes.”

Kaede nods. “Alright. I guess we can split up then—you can lead a group with that one and I’ll search with the others to figure out what to do with the paintbrush.”

“BUT,” a distressed Monodam says. “SPLITTING-UP-IS-NOT-WORKING-TOGETHER.”

“Also I don’t wanna go with Akamatsu-chan _or_ Kiiboy,” Ouma pouts, jumping to his feet as well. “Man, and here I was hoping this exploration wouldn’t be totally boring.”

Momota huffs. “If we’re splitting up, I’m going with Kaede, and Ouma can fucking go with Kiibo.”

Ouma sniffles. “But I just said I don’t wan—”

“I don’t fucking care what you want!” Momota yells at him. “I just want you out of my fucking face!”

And Ouma’s tears evaporate. “Hey, Momota-chan,” he says. “Why are you angry? Is it because everyone finally knows how weak you are? Are you afraid you’ll be the next victim?”

Momota opens his mouth to shout again, when Maki quickly interrupts, “that won’t happen. Now,” she turns to Kaede. “I suppose we’ll be investigating together, then. Don’t slow us down.”

Kaede just rolls her eyes. “Didn’t you once say you’d rather choke on glass than team up with me and Kaito?”

Maki glares at her before turning to fiddling with her hair silently.

Monodam says, “YOU-ARE-GETTING-ALONG-BETTER-NOW. BUT,” he raises his paw again, a thin keycard held in it, “THERE-IS-ONE-MORE-ITEM. THE-MOTIVE-WILL-BE-GIVEN-NOW, TOO, TO-ENSURE-COOPERATION-AND—”

“M-Motive?” Shirogane stutters. “Already?”

Hoshi sighs as he finally walks over to the others. “Not satisfied, huh? Haven’t made us suffer enough, yet?”

Kiibo frowns. “This is unfortunate, however, a keycard as a motive means it likely unlocks an area that contains something that would cause someone to attempt murder. The obvious solution in that case is to simply not use it, and—”

“Mine!” Ouma shouts, darting forward and swiping the keycard out of Monodam’s paw.

Momota immediately shouts, “Hey!” as Ouma speeds out the doors. “Come the fuck back here!”

He charges off after him, leaving Kaede blinking in confuse at what just happened. There’s an odd expression on Maki’s face as she says, “I’ll retrieve the keycard. I doubt Momota can run for long. Hoshi,” she turns to him. “You’re also fast. Tackle Ouma for me.”

Hoshi rolls his eyes. “And I’d do that because?”

“E-Everyone calm down,” Kaede says, recovering. “There’s no reason to hurt Ouma-kun, even if he—”

“Ouma wants to keep the game going,” Maki answers simply. “He’s said so himself enough times. Clearly whatever he’s up to concerning a motive will result in another murder if he goes unchecked.”

Kaede opens and closes her mouth. “I…” her thoughts race. “I… don’t know about that.”

Maki sighs as she brushes past her. “I don’t know what is going on between the two of you, and I don’t care. But if both of you keep up your nonsense, there’s going to be another killing, and I am not going to allow that. The sooner we end this stupid game the better,” paused in front of the cafeteria doors she says again, “Hoshi, search for Ouma, too.”

Then she leaves, and Kaede’s left fiddling with her hat as she thinks about everything Ouma said the other day again. 

In the uncomfortable silence following the doors swinging shut, Monodam says, “EVERYONE-IS-SUPPOSED-TO-EXPLORE-TOGETHER-TO-BECOME-FRIENDS.”

Hoshi ignores him as he pulls his hat down. “Don’t feel like wandering aimlessly around the school. Sorry, Akamatsu.” He sighs again. “Don’t know what the hell stopping Ouma will do either, but maybe Harukawa has a point. Guess I’ll look for him, too. Do something with myself…”

“Y-Yeah,” Kaede says, not having the heart to argue with him. “Um, tell me what you find, alright? I… don’t really trust Ouma-kun or Harukawa-san to tell me.”

He nods as he pushes the doors open. “Got it.”

“So, um,” Shirogane says. “Are just the three of us exploring then?”

“THIS-IS-NOT-WHAT-I-WANTED…” Monodam mumbles to himself.

Kiibo says, “It would seem that way. Akamatsu-san, Shirogane-san, the two of you should go together. If my prediction for this object is correct, then I should at least be able to explore with Iruma-san, if,” he frowns, “I can manage to convince her to leave her lab, that is.”

“She’s,” Kaede searches for the words. “Not doing well, is she?”

He nods. “Iruma-san was near inconsolable after the trial. I am becoming very worried for her metal health also,” he stares at the ground. “If this is not too odd to say, ever since I discovered Iruma-san during the investigation and thought her to be dead, I have begun to reassess my feelings about our relationship.”

“Huh?” Kaede says. “What do you mean? You two are still friends, right?”

“That is correct, however,” Kiibo frowns as his face begins to grow red, “I realized then how much I did not like thinking about what I would do without Iruma-san around. I am doubtful she experienced a similar experience, however, I…” he presses his fingers together, “I am debating telling her how I felt.”

Shirogane clasps her hands together. “A robot learning to experience love! Oh, how romantic! This is just like…” she frowns. “Actually I’ve seen this plot a lot, but it’s still plainly romantic, though.”

“I-I do not know if I would call it love,” Kiibo says quickly, face still burning. “I simply… care for her very deeply.”

Kaede smiles at him. “I think it’s sweet. And I also think Iruma-san would be really happy to hear she has someone like you around right now.”

He nods. “Yes, right now my main goal is merely to be supportive, so,” he moves to the doors, obviously trying to flee the room in his embarrassment. “If you’ll excuse me, I must be going.”

Shirogane lets out a dreamy sigh as his footsteps fade away. “Maybe it’s silly to get caught up in romance given our situation, but it’s so nice to hear about something so plain and normal, you know.”

“I-AM-HAPPY-THEY-ARE-GETTING-ALONG,” Monodam interjects.

Kaede ignores him. “Ah, I suppose, though,” she tugs at her hat and bites back her own hypocrisy. “Becoming really emotionally dependent on someone isn’t a great idea. Getting too attached, uh,” she shakes her head, “sorry. Forget it.”

Shirogane looks at her worriedly but says, “O-Okay. Um, should we,” she glances down to the paintbrush still held in Kaede’s hand, “the two of us should still go explore, right?”

Kaede nods. “Right.”

The two set off, Kaede leading the way with her follower of one trailing behind. 

Before the doors to the cafeteria swing shut, Kaede hears Monodam repeat, “I-JUST-WANT-EVERYONE-TO-GET-ALONG.”

-

It doesn’t take much thinking to assume their mysterious object belongs somewhere on the fourth floor. Kaede says as much to Shirogane, and they begin their search there with only the distant yelling of whatever chase is going on between the others echoing any protest. 

They wander through the somehow even more oppressive halls, only stopping when Kaede hears a slight scrapping carrying out from inside the middle of the three rooms. She pauses just outside the empty doorframe, Shirogane nervously at her side, and peeks in to see Tenko awkwardly trying to drag the large box where Gonta was killed by herself.

“Tenko-san,” Kaede says. “What are you doing?”

Tenko jolts at the sound of her name, her pigtails fanning out behind her. “A-Ah, Kaede-san,” she stammers. “T-Tenko was…” she looks back to the box in front of her. “Tenko was just trying to move this back… back to Yumeno-san’s lab.”

Kaede feels her chest tighten as she takes a hesitant step into the room. All of the swords and Angie’s statues have since disappeared along with any sign of Gonta’s murder. Kaede pushes down just how uncomfortable the sudden emptiness makes her feel as she says, “Are you moving everything by yourself?”

Tenko nods. “Gonta-san’s body was already gone, but,” she bites her lip. “Tenko… didn’t like the idea of Yumeno-san’s things being here.”

“Oh,” says Shirogane speaking up. “That sounds like a lot of work for one person. Have you been here since this morning?”

“Yes,” she says turning to stare at the ground. “Tenko is sorry for not meeting with the others, but,” she squeezes her eyes shut. “Tenko really didn’t want—Tenko can’t…” she shakes her head. “Sorry…” 

“It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize,” Kaede says softly. “No one would expect you to after yesterday. I mean, no one really expected me to do much after Saiha—” Hoshi’s words biting at her just how little she actually knew about Saihara come rushing over her. She pulls at her hat. “I-I mean—you should do whatever you think will make you feel better.”

“Yeah,” says Shirogane. “Um, if it matters, most people are just kind of doing their own things right now, so you shouldn’t feel bad.”

Tenko seems confused at her words. “Everyone is…?”

Kaede says, “Shirogane-san and I are exploring, but most of the others became distracted with… with the new motive.”

Tenko’s voice is small. “Already? B-But,” she looks hurriedly around the room, her hair spinning around her, “but Tenko hasn’t even—i-it’s was only yesterday that Yumeno-san—” she cuts herself off, pressing a hand to her tired, red-rimmed eyes. “T-Tenko… should probably stop then. She should probably go try and help everyone because putting Yumeno-san’s research lab back together… won’t help anyone.”

“No, it’s okay,” Kaede says. “It’s a bit hard to explain, but we’re not even really sure what the motive is right now. Kaito’s handling it, and if he can’t then Hoshi-kun or Harukawa-san probably will.”

“Th-That’s right,” says Shirogane. “I’m sure between the three of them, they’ll stop Ouma-kun.”

Tenko looks between them confusedly. Kaede says, “I promise I’ll explain later after Shirogane-san and I finish exploring. And,” she takes another step towards her, placing a hand on Tenko’s shoulder. “I remember a very empathetic person once telling me that hiding your emotions or pretending they aren’t there doesn’t help anyone. Sometimes you need to put on a strong front but,” she offers her a reassuring smile, “I’d would rather work with someone who mourns their friends’ deaths rather than someone who acted like they didn’t matter.”

Tenko stares searchingly at her before letting out a deep breath. “Tenko remembers when she said all that… it feels like so long ago.”

“It does,” Kaede says, pushing her hat back slightly on her head. “But I still think about it. And my point is that you were there for me, so I’m going to be here for you, okay?”

Tenko nods and begins brushing at her eyes again. “Kaede-san, you’re going to make Tenko cry,” she lets out a choked laugh. “Tenko looks really ugly when she cries, too.”

Kaede offers her a sympathetic smile. “So do I, but if that’s what you need to do, you should do it, and I’ll be ready to help you with whatever comes next, even if neither of us know what that is yet.”

Tenko nods again, still wiping at her eyes. “That sounds like a good idea, th-then,” she lets out a shaky breath and tries to smile back at Kaede. “Tenko will finish up here and see you later, okay?”

“I’ll be waiting,” Kaede says as she finally steps away.

Tenko waves goodbye, and Kaede exits to the room with a heavy heart, only to find Shirogane awkwardly standing just outside the door. She immediately jumps back when Kaede looks at her, saying, “I-I wasn’t listening! I mean, I didn’t mean to listen in! I mean—”

“It’s okay,” Kaede says. “I didn’t mean to keep you waiting. We still need to explore the school after all.”

Shirogane nods and follows after Kaede as she starts forward again, internally thinking just how little the universe stops after each and every death.

It takes little time to pinpoint the one plain, unadorned, and oddly locked door on the floor, and it reacts vibrantly to the paintbrush, bursting into colors before vanishing altogether. A bright red staircase stretches before them, and Kaede takes a deep breath as she begins her ascent.

-

The fifth floor is beautiful. Ignoring the gaudy Monokuma statues adorning the staircase, the tall glass windows reflect down in such a way that Kaede can only think it looks like heaven. With Shirogane still trailing behind her, she moves to stare out one of the windows almost instinctually. 

Kaede runs her hands over the glass, staring at her own distorted reflection as Shirogane says, “It looks a bit like a church up here, doesn’t it?”

Kaede hums. “Yeah… I wonder if Angie-san would have liked it here or maybe,” she tries to smile but the glassy window before her reflects just how bad her attempt is. “Maybe Tojo-san and Shinguji-kun, too—they liked elegant things.”

Her words seem to make Shirogane uncomfortable, and she can see the other girl shifting awkwardly behind her. “Uh, maybe,” she says. “But, um, we should probably keep exploring…”

Kaede sighs. “Right,” and her hand falls from the window as she turns to face Shirogane. “Let’s see what we can find.”

For once, Shirogane walks in front and she seems to almost naturally gravitate towards a door with pictures of clothing and wigs surrounding it. “Oh,” she says. “Do you think there’s a chance this could be my lab?”

“Maybe.” Kaede begins to list off on her fingers. “The only labs left are Kaito’s, Kiibo-kun’s, Ouma-kun’s, and, ah,” she can’t help but wince slightly, “Amami-kun’s and Saihara-kun’s. A-And yours, too, I suppose.”

Shirogane nods. “Right. Um, Akamatsu-san,” she says. “If you don’t mind me asking, have you been back to your lab a lot since you first found it? I don’t mean to pry, but I know musicians usually need to stay in practice.”

“Ah,” Kaede fiddles with the brim of Saihara’s hat. “No, I… have been letting it slip—a lot. It’s just,” she decides to tell the truth, “it’s just a little hard to focus on playing the piano when your friends are killing each other.”

Shirogane fidgets. “Oh, well, I know that, but if you only focus on the killing game, well,” she shakes her head. “Wouldn’t you drive yourself crazy with paranoia or guilt or, um… sorry,” she turns away from Kaede and towards the door. “Let’s just, um, see what’s in here.”

The door opens easily enough when Shirogane twists the handle, and the two girls enter the near cavernous room, staring dizzily up at the vaulted ceiling. Kaede echoes her thoughts aloud, “This place is huge…”

“It is,” Shirogane says. “It looks like there’re sets and supplies to make and store clothes… and oh!” she shuffles over to what Kaede realizes looks suspiciously like a bar. “I think this might be another set, but it looks fully stocked.”

Kaede follows after her, much more hesitant as Shirogane produces several bottles from underneath the counter, examining each label briefly before pulling out another. Kaede reaches forward to inspect one of the ways Shirogane set aside, scanning the label as she asks, “Are these alcoholic?”

“Oh, only some of them,” Shirogane says. “I actually used to work at a bar part time to make a little extra money for my cosplays before I started getting sponsors. Ooh, Akamatsu-san, would you like me to make you a drink?”

Shirogane sends her a pleading look, and after briefly reflecting on how uncomfortable she has made the other girl so many times today, Kaede relents. “Sure, if you’ll have one with me.”

“Of course!” Shirogane says. “Non-alcoholic ones, right? Unless you want a little that is…”

“I’ll pass on that,” Kaede laughs awkwardly. 

Shirogane turns to focus on her drink mixing, laughing slightly as well. “That’s fair. To be honest, when I worked at a bar, if I wanted to focus on selling anyone alcohol, it was usually older men. It’s a little creepy, but they tended to tip better, speaking of which,” she shakes the drink in her hand before placing it in front of Kaede. “I know you said you’re mostly just focused on the killing game, but would you maybe mind gossiping with me a little?”

Kaede furrows her brow in confusion. “Gossip about what? And how does that relate to older men?”

“Oh, well, it’s really only marginally related,” she waves a hand. “I mostly wanted to ask you if you liked anyone. Kiibo-kun was talking about how much he liked Iruma-san earlier, so I guess it’s just been on my mind.”

Kaede stares down at her drink. “Right. That’s,” she takes an experimental sip of her drink, “really sweet of him. But, um,” she reaches up for the brim of Saihara’s hat, hoping Shirogane will take the hint, “no, I don’t really think of anyone here like that.”

“Oh yeah?” Shirogane hums. “What about Momota-kun? You two seemed pretty close for a while, but then,” she snaps her fingers, “oh, is that why you don’t get along with Harukawa-san? Because you both like—”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Kaede says quickly. “Kaito’s just a friend, but—” she frowns. “Wait, you think Harukawa-san likes him? But she’s… how can she like anyone?”

Shirogane shrugs. “I’m not sure. I always assumed assassins weren’t supposed to get attached to people, but lately she’s always hovering around him. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I figured that meant she had a crush on him.”

Kaede takes another sip of her drink to give herself more time to form a proper response. “I’ll… talk to him about it.”

Shirogane clasps her hands. “So it is a love triangle! Oh, how exciting—everyone loves a good love triangle.”

“Like I said,” Kaede says. “Kaito and I are just friends. Besides,” she laughs again, “even if I was in the mood to think about anyone romantically, he’s not my type. His hair looks too much like an eggplant.”

Shirogane presses a hand to her mouth as she giggles. “I guess that is true. I always thought of him as kind of handsome in a shonen hero kind of way, but now,” she shakes her head. “Ah, Akamatsu-san, you’ve ruined it—I’m never going to be able to look at him without thinking about eggplants now.”

“You’re welcome,” she says, finishing off the last of her drink, leaving a slight, happy glow lingering between them. “You know,” she looks down at her empty cup. “I was a little hesitant about this at first, but that was nice. I haven’t really been able to just talk about nothing since,” since Amami died, “for a long time now. So,” she smiles up at her, “thanks for that.”

“No problem,” Shirogane says. “To be honest, I’ve always felt a little distant from everyone else—so I’m always happy to hang out if you want another drink. Ooh, or to cosplay with me!”

“Maybe some other time,” Kaede says. “After all, we still have a bit more of this floor left to explore.”

Shirogane nods. “Right, and then we’ll also need to talk to Kiibo-kun to see what he found, and then find the others to see about the keycard,” she sighs. “It just never ends, does it? I guess it isn’t useful to anyone to just take a break but,” she shakes her head. “I don’t know how you put up it, Akamatsu-san. I think I would just break down and never leave my room if I tried being responsible for everyone for more than five minutes.”

Kaede smiles wryly, absently fiddling with her empty glass. “Well, I don’t think I’ve been doing that great a job. Everyone just—”

She cuts herself off as the sounds of the doors to Shirogane’s lab opening suddenly echo through the spacious room and both girls whip their heads to see their new guest. Kaede immediately stands to see Ouma, of all people, casually skipping towards them. Shirogane says, “Ouma-kun? What are you doing here?” while Kaede just stares him down.

He ignores her question instead quickly scampering along the side of the bar, standing on his toes to reach for the variety of bottles Shirogane had set aside. “Ooh, are you guys getting drunk before you investigate?”

Shirogane sends Kaede a nervous look as she says, “Um, they’re nonalcoholic.”

“All of them?” he asks, lifting one bottle to inspect the label as Kaede had done so before. “This one smells like alcohol… ooh! Maybe we could use these to get Momota-chan drunk before we cut off his leg!”

Kaede just sighs. “And why would we do that?”

“Because it hurts less when you’re drunk,” Ouma says, pointedly answering the wrong question. “Or, at least, you care less when you’re drunk, but I don’t know!” He places it back on the bar a touch too roughly, causing Shirogane to instinctively reach out to steady the wobbling bottle. “But Momota-chan’s doing super bad, especially since he fell again.”

Of all his statements, that one’s believable enough for Kaede to ask, “He did?” 

“Yup!” he answers cheerfully. “Momota-chan’s really clumsy and gross, huh?”

“Oh,” to Kaede’s surprise, Shirogane sounds mildly disappointed. “You don’t have a crush on him anymore, do you? I’m never going to get a love triangle at this rate, and I had such high hopes, too…”

Kaede chooses to ignore her, asking, “Is anyone with him now?”

“Harumaki-chan started whining at him if that’s what you mean,” Ouma says, puffing out his cheeks. “But then Hoshi-chan was really mean, and took the keycard when I looked over my shoulder at them.” He looks dejectedly at the ground, “I didn’t even get to find out what super special awesome place it unlocked…”

Shirogane asks, “So Hoshi-kun has it?”

Kaede looks him over, instead asking, “Why are you telling us all this?”

Her question catches Ouma’s attention and he smiles slyly at her. “No reason. Just felt it was good to know. We need to share information if we want to prevent a murder, right?”

Kaede stares hard at him, distantly aware of Shirogane shifting uncomfortably in the background as the two of them have their stare off. “Um, well,” she says. “Akamatsu-san and I were just about to leave anyway to investigate more, so—”

“You should come with us,” Kaede says sharply. “Like you said, it’s good to share information.”

Ouma quirks an eyebrow and seems to debate her proposal for a moment before saying, “lead the way, Akamatsu-chan.”

-

There are only two more sets of doors on the floor, and after a cursory check of the first one, Shirogane cautiously guesses it likely requires another item from the Monokubs to open due to the strange keyhole. Kaede still attempts to shove herself against it, though Ouma forces them her to abandon it when he pronounces his boredom and begins to skip away.

The other door is rather plain and remains firmly shut when Ouma twists the handle. Shirogane says, “Oh, is this one locked, too? It’d be weird if we needed a second item for this place as well, especially since I don’t see anywhere to put one…”

Kaede looks over the door and suddenly feels a growing pit in her stomach. “This… this is a research lab, isn’t it? And it’s locked because…”

“Because it belongs to either Saihara-chan or Amami-chan,” Ouma observes coolly. “Hmm, we don’t have Gonta around to rip the door off anymore, so—”

“Pick the lock,” Kaede says sharply. 

Shirogane blinks at her. “Akamatsu-san?”

“I said pick the lock,” Kaede repeats. 

Ouma’s eyes flicker over her for a moment, and Kaede doesn’t waver as she stares back at him. He shrugs. “Fine,” and kneels down in front of the door, pulling a thin wire out of his pocket before getting to work. “This is pretty exciting though—I wonder if this will be the lab for my beloved Saihara-chan or my beloved Amami-chan. Either’s pretty great!”

Kaede doesn’t acknowledge him, instead glaring hard at the door. The rational part of her says that Ouma has no reason to go unnecessarily slow and likely isn’t, but time seems to stretch achingly on, with only the sounds of his fiddling and Shirogane lightly shifting from foot to foot echoing around her. Kaede remains deadly still, half mentally preparing herself for whatever lies ahead, half questioning why she had been so confident this was a good idea.

Then the door clicks, and Ouma pushes it slightly ajar with one hand before standing again. “Done.”

Kaede pushes past him without a word into the small, almost cozy room. She takes two determined steps inside before screeching to a halt, even as Ouma scampers around her, already poking and prodding at a shelf like a child in a toy store. 

He swipes a random binder from a shelf, flipping through it wildly before turning it to face Kaede and Shirogane still nervously hovering in the door, saying, “Look! Murder pictures!”

He says more and Shirogane says something back but it all sounds like static to Kaede who numbly takes in everything around her. There’s the shelf Ouma’s slowly tearing apart lined with binders filled with images from crime scenes and another cabinet storing an immense set of vials and bottles and a few nice chairs and a strange fire and an overly elaborate clock and Kaede feels her chest tighten and bile rise up in her throat. 

Shirogane’s still chastising Ouma when Kaede says in a voice just above a whisper, “This is Saihara-kun’s lab…”

“Looks like it,” Ouma hums, shoving the binder haphazardly back on the shelf. “Which means it’s probably full of stuff to kill people with!”

Shirogane gasps. “Ouma-kun! How can you say that, Akamatsu-san—”

“It’s fine,” Kaede says quickly. “Let’s just…” she takes a deep breath. “It’s fine.”

Ouma skips past her towards the cabinet full of bottles, saying in a sing-song voice, “And I thought someone was getting better at lying.”

With too much of her energy devoted to not simply falling to her knees, Kaede can’t even in find it in herself to glare at him. Instead she just squeezes her eyes shut and wills herself to stop playing Saihara’s execution on repeat with each tick of the clock. He was never even here. He never knew this room even existed. The sight of the empty chairs makes Kaede want to vomit.

Shirogane must have mustered up the courage to approach her as her soft voice calls out, “Akamatsu-san?” from just behind Kaede’s shoulder. “Are you alright? You look kind of pale…”

“Is it because this place is full of poison?” Ouma asks standing on his toes to examine a bottle on a shelf slightly above his head. “That would make me pretty nervous!”

His words cause something to click in her head and Kaede whips towards him. “Poison?” 

Ouma smiles brightly as he pulls two bottles off the shelf, turning to show her their labels. “Deadly poison and deadly poison antidote,” he announces before slipping them both into one of his pockets. “I think I’ll just save these for later.”

Shirogane looks horrified. “You’re just going to carry around poison!? W-Why on earth would you do something like that!?”

Kaede instead moves past him to begin scanning the shelf. Each bottle before her details either the traumatic effects it will wreck on the human body or how quickly it needs to be administered to prevent just that. Shirogane and Ouma are still arguing. Kaede presses a hand to her forehead. “Why are there so many horrible things here? This place is like it was built for a criminal…”

“Well,” Ouma spins on his heel. “It was Saihara-chan’s job to catch criminals, right? So it makes sense that he’d need to study them lots and lots.” He taps a finger to his chin. “Aaaand he did end up becoming a criminal anyway, so it seems like a perfect fit, right Akamatsu-chan?”

Kaede’s hands tighten into fists at his challenge. Shirogane begins to scold him for saying such things and Ouma starts sniffling about how he’s just telling the truth. Kaede says quickly, “I have to go,” before sprinting out of the room without another word.

Her entire body feels too hot and too sick, and she’s only half aware she’s brushing the beginnings of tears away by the time she reaches the bottom of the staircase. And she feels so, so guilty for it as Hoshi’s words come flooding back to her again. Another part of her reminds herself how long ago it was that she last felt this way and just how much she managed to forget. And then Shirogane echoing how she’s responsible for everyone comes flowing over everything.

Kaede manages to make it dazedly back to the second floor when she hears footsteps behind her and Tenko’s voice calling out, “Kaede-san?” she hears her jog over. “Is everything—are you okay?”

Something about seeing Tenko makes her feel even worse for crying, and she wipes at her eyes as embarrassment surges up through her. “I’m fine—” she remembers her own words to Tenko only moments ago. “No, I’m really not, but I just need a minute.”

Tenko looks unconvinced, and Kaede adds, “Really. I just,” she takes a deep breath, “I just happened to find Saihara-kun’s talent lab, and I,” she forces a choked laugh. “I wasn’t as ready for it as I thought I was. That’s all.”

Tenko pauses. “Kaede-san,” she says. “If you’re not feeling up to it, Tenko understands, but she actually wanted to ask you for a favor that might help a little.”

“Huh?” Kaede blinks. “What is it?”

“Tenko was,” she sighs. “Tenko was thinking about what you said to her again and about the first time Tenko said it, and,” she bows her head slightly, “Tenko was wondering if maybe you could play that song for her—the one you wanted to play for Saihara-san.”

Kaede’s heart seizes up. “You want…”

“Tenko understands if—”

“No, it’s okay,” Kaede says. “That actually sounds really nice… I,” she tries to smile, “I haven’t touched a piano for so long—I’m probably really rusty.”

Tenko smiles back. “That’s okay. Tenko just wants to hear Kaede-san play. She thinks it would make Yumeno-san and Saihara-san and everyone else really happy, too.”

They fill the walk to Kaede’s talent lab with soft small talk, and Kaede brushes her fingers over the long since untouched piano keys as Tenko sits down beside her. She runs almost absently through scales, but even after weeks of no practice, everything flows through her as if second nature. Even as her warm-ups go on too long, Tenko never seems bored or impatient, simply calmly watching her fingers fly across the keys.

Kaede starts Clair de Lune without announcing it and the soft melodies soar through the room, and with each movement of her hands, she recalls a time when she sat in a sunset swept classroom, placing her own hand over one of Saihara’s and telling him everything would be okay. She risks a glance towards Tenko to see the other girl sitting calmly with her eyes closed, looking more relaxed than she has all day, and wonders which time with Yumeno she’s thinking about.

When she finishes, Tenko softly says, “Again, please—just a bit longer,” and Kaede starts from the beginning without protest.

They spend too long there. After her second play through, Tenko asks if there are any other songs Kaede would like to play, and the day wears on as they sit listening to each melancholy song Kaede can find the music for. 

They finally leave when Tenko quietly mentions she has yet to eat anything since yesterday morning, and Kaede offers to get her something from the cafeteria. She manages to make the entire trip there without running into anyone until she enters the room in question to find Kiibo who immediately perks up at her presence. “Akamatsu-san,” he says. “I’ve been looking for you and Chabashira-san. I am ready to report my findings.”

Kaede absently realizes the killing game had yet to stop just because she and Tenko sealed themselves away from everything for a few moments. “Right,” she says. “Um, where are the others, too, if you know?”

“I also came to report that as well,” he says. “In their pursuit of Ouma-kun, the others managed to find the Flasback Light and are waiting for everyone in the gym.”

“Oh, that sounds… really important,” she says. “I’ll, um, I’ll get Tenko-san and meet you there then.”

Kiibo nods. “Understood. I will report to the others.”

He leaves, and Kaede just stares at the ground and sighs as all the weight she had felt leave her body comes rushing back in with his reminder of their reality. She grabs an apple for Tenko and speed walks back to her lab to deliver the bad news.

-

When they enter the gym, Maki says, “Finally.”

“Oh, Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says, still looking worried. “Are you alright? You ran off, and I—”

“I’m fine,” she says quickly before squaring her shoulders. “I guess we should just do this like the first time—what does everyone have to report?”

Kiibo’s standing almost protectively in front of a fidgeting Iruma and says, “I managed to discover my own lab, which connects to Iruma-san’s. However,” he frowns, “there was not much of interest there, and it was rather disappointing as a whole. I doubt I will spend much time there.”

Iruma waves a hand. “Just a bunch of robot upgrades—doesn’t matter for anyone who’s not Kiibs.”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Akamatsu-san and I—and I guess Ouma-kun, too—unlocked the fifth floor and found my lab, and, um,” she looks at the ground. “Saihara-kun’s lab, too. Ouma-kun picked the lock, so anyone can go in there now…”

Maki quirks an eyebrow. “And was there anything of interest?”

“Juuuust poison!” Ouma says happily. “Good thing Akamatsu-chan made me unlock it, huh?”

“P-Poison!?” Iruma stutters.

Tenko quickly leaps to her defense, “Kaede-san could not have known that would be there!”

“Ah, that’s true!” Shirogane adds. “There was no way she could have known.”

“Regardless,” Hoshi says with a sigh. “That’s one more weapon we have to use against each other…”

“And attempting to dispose of it would likely be pointless,” Maki says. “Monokuma or whoever would probably just restock it.”

Iruma mutters under her breath, “have to make all of my own fucking food now…”

Kaede clears her throat. “So that’s my group and Kiibo-kun’s.” She turns to Maki. “What happened with the keycard?”

Momota groans. “After Ouma fucking took off with it, Hoshi grabbed it from him.”

“He was really mean, too,” Ouma pouts. “Running that fast is so not fair.”

“So Hoshi-kun has it?” Kaede asks, ignoring him. 

“No,” Hoshi says. “Gave it to Harukawa after she finished taking care of Momota.”

“She didn’t fucking take care of me!” Momota shouts. 

“Oh?” Ouma asks. “Is there another word for acting as your human crutch to take you back to your room because you couldn’t do it by yourself?”

Momota growls. “Well obviously I’m fucking fine now, so all of you can back off.”

“So,” Shirogane says. “Harukawa-san has it? Did you figure out where it goes to?”

Maki crosses her arms. “No, I didn’t, but I will be holding on to it for safekeeping. If nobody discovers the motive, there won’t be a murder.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Kiibo says. 

Kaede says, “Wait—isn’t this like the motive with the Monokubs’ pads? Wouldn’t it be best if we all just go look at the motive together so we can talk about it?”

“Ooh, ooh, yeah!” says Ouma. “I wanna see! I wanna see!”

“No,” Hoshi says. “We don’t even know where it goes to, which means,” he pulls his hat down. “Actually avoiding this one altogether is probably the best idea.”

“I agree,” says Maki. “And forcing everyone to view the motive will only increase the likelihood of a murder—not decrease it.”

“Aw,” Ouma pouts. “But me and Akamatsu-chan should really see so we know who to watch out for.”

Kaede blinks. “What? Why just us?”

“Because if you’re going to kill someone,” Ouma says, his face turning dark. “Wouldn’t you kill someone who actually knows how to solve a mystery?”

Kaede feels a sudden rush of something cold slide down her neck. “I—”

Tenko shouts, “That will not happen! Tenko will protect Kaede-san at all costs!”

“S-So,” Ouma starts sniffling. “W-Who will protect me when Harumaki-chan tries to kill me again?” 

Maki snaps, “Do you want to be killed?”

Ouma huffs. “I just said I didn’t!”

Maki takes a step towards him, only to be cut off by Momota saying, “Harukawa—he’s not worth it.”

Her glare doesn’t leave her face, even as she abruptly stops moving. “Whatever. I’m still going to kill you and end this ridiculous game.”

“Well, if we’re all done threatening each other,” Hoshi says. “Flashback Light—Harukawa found it.”

“Oh, that’s right,” says Shirogane. “Maybe we can finally figure out something about that weird group funeral.”

“Or why the fuck we were being hunted down like rats,” Iruma mutters darkly.

Maki gives them a once over before pulling it out and flicking it on without a word of warning.

And then Kaede sees white. The same searing, burning feeling surges over her as it did so many times before, and then—then meteors fall from the sky by the hundreds, thousands, and the streets scream with protesters and shouting about the end of the world and there’s death and disappearances and all of humanity at the very brink of destruction.

And then she’s standing back in the gym, breathing heavily as the world ending fades out around her.

Iruma lets out a wordless scream, falling to her knees, and clawing at her hair. Kiibo quickly moves to her side, but she keeps chanting, “this is hell, this is hell, we’re all in f-fucking hell!”

Through gritted teeth, Momota snaps, “We’re not fucking dead—quit saying that.”

Iruma keeps mumbling to herself, her words becoming indistinguishable as she presses her hands to her face. Despite clearly being a bit shaken himself, Kiibo says, “Iruma-san, please try to calm down—you’re safe.”

“Boo, bad lie, Kiiboy,” Ouma says. “She’s in a killing game.”

Iruma’s entire body flinches as any weight Kiibo’s words of comfort had evaporate. 

“B-But,” Shirogane says. “What was that? I-Is the world outside really like that? I remember…” she shakes her head, “I remember my neighborhood… it was overrun with those people talking about how the world was going to end…”

“Mine, too,” Hoshi says, voice quiet. “It was impossible to avoid them…”

“But,” Tenko says. “There was something else, right? T-Tenko remembers there being a plan of some kind—the Gophel plan—but…”

“It failed…” Kaede finishes. 

Momota presses hand to his forehead. “The fuck does all this mean? Is the world really…”

Iruma whimpers. “A-Almost everyone’s fucking dead, and we’re trapped in hell with no fucking way to get out…”

“That’s not true,” Ouma says. “There’s always graduation after all!”

“D-Don’t say that!” Shirogane says. 

“Hmm?” he tilts his head. “Why not? Someone here’s probably thinking about it right now!”

“The only one thinking that shit is you,” Momota say harshly. “None of us would—”

“But again and again some of us have!” Ouma says. “Geeze, Momota-chan do you ever learn?”

Hoshi says, “Knock if off, both of you.” He moves to leave the gym. “I’ve had enough of this…”

Shirogane says, “I-I think I’m going to go back to my room. I… need to go lie down for a little while.”

They exit without protest, and Kaede hears Kiibo softly say, “Iruma-san, I can escort you back to your room if you need help.”

She allows Kiibo to slowly pull her to her feet even with his meager strength barely supporting her. They walk past Kaede on their way out, and she can barely make out Iruma’s increasingly distressed mumbling. “Hell… hell—I’m in _fucking_ hell…”

After the doors swing shut, Tenko suddenly says, “Tenko thinks maybe this is a trick—maybe Monokuma is simply trying to—”

“No,” Maki answers, speaking up for the first time since turning on the Flashback Light. “There’s no reason to think this one would be fake after all the others.”

Ouma says, “That’s one way to look at it, buuut,” he folds his hands behind his head. “I think we’re still missing a pretty important piece—maybe one more Flashback Light and everything will fit together!”

With that, he merrily skips out the doors of the gym as if he hadn’t also just been privy to seeing the world end.

Maki says, “I need to go check something. Momota, you should lie down as well. Stress—”

“I’m fine,” he says. “What I really need is for everyone to stop fucking fussing over me.”

Maki frowns. “I’m going then,” and she walks out the gym without a word to either Kaede or Tenko still standing by the door.

Momota sighs and presses a hand to his face. “Well,” he says. “Guess it’s been a pretty fucking long time since it was just the three of us, at least.”

“Right,” Kaede says. “Though Tenko-san should actually probably leave to go eat,” she turns to her. “Did you eat the apple I gave you?”

“A-Ah, not yet,” Tenko says. “But Tenko will, um,” she looks between the two of them. “Kaede-san, will you be alright if Tenko leaves?”

“Of course,” she says. 

Momota pulls a face. “Are you still saying that just ‘cause I’m a guy?”

Tenko frowns. “Awful boys tend not to be aware of others feelings,” she says. “And you are very likely to say something rude to Kaede-san, intentional or not.”

He rolls his eyes, and Kaede can’t help but smile at their familiar banter. “I will not. I always fucking think about what I say.”

“Tenko doubts that,” she says. “But… Tenko is also very hungry. Goodbye, Kaede-san, Momota-san.”

“Bye,” Kaede calls after her as she leaves.

Alone together for the first time in so long, Momota forces a smile. “Been a while since we could just talk. Like,” he grins, “can’t believe you fucking tried to join a cult without me—I turn around for one second and you—”

Kaede shakes her head. “Things have been pretty intense lately, haven’t they?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Hate to fucking admit Ouma’s right about anything, but I’ve kinda been out of the loop for a while.”

“It’s not your fault,” Kaede says. “Especially since,” she frowns, “that actually reminds me—do you think Harukawa-san has a crush on you?”

Momota blinks. “What? If she does this is the first I’ve fucking heard about it.”

“So she hasn’t said anything?” Kaede asks. “And you don’t like her?”

He furrows his brow. “Uh, haven’t really thought about romance a whole lot. I mean, she’s nice and I think she needs a friend and shit, but,” he shakes his head, “why’re you asking me about this anyway?”

“Shirogane-san was talking about it,” Kaede answers. “She seemed really interested in the idea of a love triangle or something going on between us.”

Momota snorts. “Between you, me, and Harumaki?”

“Well, first us and then you, Harukawa-san, and Ouma-kun,” she says.

Momota scowls. “Wonder where the hell Shirogane got that fucked up idea. Maybe all that anime’s rot her brain or something.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says with a teasing smile. “It is pretty hard to believe that many people would be interested in you.”

“Hey!” he shouts, though half smiling. “Tons of people would wanna date me—maybe not a lot of people here but—”

“In theory?” Kaede asks. “Back home did you—ah,” she cuts herself off. “Never mind.”

Momota seems to catch where her words were headed. “Before the meteors and cults and shit?” he shakes his head. “Can’t fucking believe that’s what the outside world’s like…”

“I guess we can’t know for sure until we leave,” Kaede says, crossing her arms. “And hopefully that will be really soon. I’m starting to get really concerned about the others.”

“‘Course you are,” Momota says. “Trying to be the leader of half of us is probably shit.”

She smirks. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I’m serious,” he says. “Especially since I’ve been falling down on the job of stopping the mastermind like I fucking said I would.”

Kaede frowns. “You’re going to stop the mastermind? How… exactly are you planning on doing that?”

He rolls his eyes. “If you say anything about I’m fucking hurt—”

“No,” Kaede says quickly. “I meant more like,” she fiddles with the bill of Saihara’s hat. “Like, what would you do if… not even if you knew who the mastermind was, but if you knew a way to stop them?”

“I’d stop—”

“Would you hurt them?” Kaede asks. “If it meant saving everyone else and ending the killing game… would you,” she swallows, “would you actually risk killing someone?”

Momota stops and stares hard at her. “What’re you asking me all that for? You feeling—”

“I just,” she says quickly. “I just think we tend to see a lot of things the same way—maybe not everything, but a lot. S-So,” she takes a deep breath, “I want your opinion: what would you do if you knew you had a way to kill the mastermind, especially knowing that they’re one of us?”

He stops, going silent for an unexpectedly long time before saying, “I guess I’d need to think about it. Kaede—I’m serious—are you fucking feeling okay?”

She shakes her head. “I’m fine—just ignore me, alright? Seeing, um,” she looks down at the ground, trying to think of an adequate lie, “seeing Saihara-kun’s lab earlier kind of shook me up a little, that’s all.”

Momota nods, looking only half convinced. “Got it. I, uh,” he looks away, an unreadable expression crossing his face, “I think I’m gonna go find Harumaki. She’s been acting kinda weird, too.”

“Is that right?” Kaede asks.

“Yeah,” he moves past Kaede to begin pushing the door to the gym open. “I know you guys don’t fucking get along at all, but she’s not a bad person, you know. She just needs a little push from time to time and shit. That’s all.”

Kaede calls out, “I’m glad you can be that person for her,” and Momota gives her a half-hearted smile before he disappears through the doors.

And then Kaede finds herself alone with her guilt and her body feels as heavy as if she was carrying a hundred shot puts when she finally leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this I think this fic might officially be the longest in the V3 tag, so thanks to everyone for sticking with me this far! Also I will be taking next weekend off from updating this fic since I'm going to be pretty busy and it's also my birthday :P Though I'll still probably be posting something.


	20. Daily Life VIII

It’s difficult for Kaede to feel much besides a general sense of failure and dread as she steps back into the hall. Momota’s already ran off to be a friend to someone she can barely speak to, and with Tenko needing as few distractions from actually eating as possible, Kaede finds herself almost at a loss with what to do with herself. 

She wanders down the halls near aimlessly for a few moments, replaying the images from the Flashback Light in her head as she stares at the dimming sky outside. Even with the fresh horror of all the memories she had somehow forgot newly fresh, between them and the sky, Kaede can’t help but find the latter more intriguing. Though the blackout as a whole had been a blur punctuated by death, the completely dark morning sky remained one of the few mysteries Kaede still actively wished to ruminate over upon remembering its existence. 

That alone is enough of an incentive to spur her into some kind of productive action, and she sharply turns on her heel to make her way outside. 

Kaede walks with her head turned up, taking in the sky and bars running through it overhead, squinting her eyes to see if any clues would suddenly decide now is was a good time to reveal themselves. She recalls Gonta mentioning the differences in the stars and a distinct absence of any birds, planes or other signs of life. And with her trained ears, Kaede realizes she can’t hear the faraway sounds of any animals and never had since waking up in the cage.

She’s perhaps a bit too focused on these musing and her foot catches on a slate of rock protruding from the ground. She manages to stumble back a few steps instead of outright falling, and after recovering Kaede looks down to see something else Gonta had once mentioned.

The smooth rock is littered with a mismatch of carved letters, but as Kaede narrows her eyes at the markings, she notices some scratches seem shallower or unfinished—as if someone had started something only to give up part of the way through.

Her musings are interpreted, however, by rather loud sounds of stomping suddenly coming towards her, along with Iruma shouting, “Bakamatsu! Finally fucking found you!” over Kiibo’s quieter caroling pleads.

The brightness of the address is enough to pull Kaede out of her previous thoughts completely. “Iruma-san?” she asks. “You… seem suddenly a lot better?”

Up close, Kaede sees her statement was not quite correct, as Iruma’s eyes still seem red, her face puffy, and her hair knotted into stringy tangles from raking her hands through it. Yet there’s an energy other than sheer panic surging through her even as her entire body still seems half ready to break down. “‘Course I’m fucking fine! I-I’m—” she jerks a thumb towards herself, “The gorgeous genius Iruma Miu—I’m a-always fine!”

The tremor in her voice betrays her, and Kaede’s obvious skepticism is enough to prompt Kiibo into saying, “I escorted Iruma-san to her room and sat with her for a few moments. I then left to go to my own room, when I suddenly heard her shouting about having a new idea—”

“B-Bitchin’ brilliant idea!” Iruma supplies.

Kiibo frowns, clearly still concerned. “And then when I attempted to go back to check on her, she instead left her room and said she needed to come find you.”

“And here we fuckin’ are,” Iruma says. “S-So, Bakamatsu—need you t-to do something for me, and, and it’s totally worth your while. I’m not the k-kinda person to not reciprocate after going do—”

“What do you need?” Kaede asks quickly.

“I got shit I need to do first, but, you,” she waves vaguely. “Y-You need to get everyone to come when I’m ready, since you’re the leader of this shitstain, okay?”

Kaede furrows her brow. “I’m… not sure I get it, but if you need me to call a meeting later, I guess I could try.”

Iruma nods, seemingly satisfied with that answer. “Better not fucking forget, a-and,” she looks between Kiibo and Kaede before lowering her voice and gesturing for them both to lean in closer. “Also—since last trial, I’ve been thinking ‘bout the, the shitty two person rule.”

Kiibo says, “You mean the rule saying the killing game ends when only two of us are left?”

“Yeah!” she says too loudly, wincing at the sound of her own voice before returning to her whispering, which Kaede notes seems to involve entirely too much spit. “I-I mean, here’s what we fucking do: me and Bakamatsu get out, a-and I can just download your A.I. or something, Kiibs, and the three of us are home fucking free.”

It takes Kaede a moment to process the implications of what she just said. “Wait, are you saying… we should work together to—I don’t know—outlast everyone else?” 

“R-Right!” Iruma says.

Kiibo seems just as hesitant as Kaede. “What about everyone else?”

Iruma nearly snarls. “ _Fuck_ the others—one ‘em is the mastermind, and—”

Something about her words sets Kaede off. “And five of them aren’t.”

The finality of her statement causes Iruma to squeak. “A-All I’m fucking s-sayin’ is we need to work together, a-and shit, like,” she frowns, clearly searching for an example of such, “l-like when I clean Kiibs and shit, or when you told me about ankle-biter stealin’ my drone. O-Oh, a-and—!” She looks to Kiibo suddenly. “And what I was sayin’ about copying Kiibs’s A.I. is totally something I can do, by the way—so we wouldn’t be fucking leaving him behind.”

Kiibo blinks. “You can copy me?” He places a hand to his chin. “Would that be equivalent to cloning? Iruma-san, I am not sure about the ethical implications of—”

“Fuck ethics!” Iruma says. “It’d just be like you’re you and the toaster is also you—nothing fucking weird about.”

Kaede would beg to differ, but she chooses to address the more pressing issue at hand. “Iruma-san, I know that you’re worried about what… our discovery a while ago means for us because of what happened to Yumeno-san, but we can’t just abandon the others to try and save ourselves.” 

Kiibo nods. “I agree. I think the three of us can still certainly work together, however I would prefer to continue trusting and relying on all my friends.”

Iruma leans back from them, shriveling up her nose. “F-Fine,” she turns away. “Fucking fine! It—it wasn’t a real offer just so you know. Great… great fucking inventor like me doesn’t need anyone…”

She begins to stomp off, and Kaede calls after her, “Do you still want me to call a meeting for you later?”

“Oh, fuck!” Iruma pivots on her heel. “Yeah—when I’m done with my shit!”

With that, she runs off curiously towards the school rather than her lab or room, leaving Kaede and Kiibo in her wake. Kiibo stares after her for a few moments before turning to Kaede. “Akamatsu-san, perhaps this does not need to be asked, but you are also worried about Iruma-san, correct?”

She nods. “I am—though I’m pretty worried about everyone,” she glances down to the stone slate. “And… basically everything about our situation.”

Kiibo follows her gaze. “This,” he kneels down next to it. “Gonta-kun mentioned this sometime ago, if I recall.” His metal fingers move over the letters, pressing into the shallower indents. “We still have yet to discover who is adding to the message, though I suppose there is little doubt it is one of us.”

Kaede nods and sighs as she looks down at it. “It has to be, and right now it looks like one of us wants to say…” she tilts her head, “‘The world is a horse thing.’ I’d write this off as a prank, but carving letters into stone isn’t exactly… funny, I guess?”

“No,” Kiibo agrees. “It is also not a public spectacle.” He stands with a shake of his head. “There are many mysteries of this school that I still fail to understand. Apologies if this sounds insensitive, but it seems the killings we are forced into are almost a distraction from uncovering…” he frowns, searching for the words, “whatever the truth of our situation is.”

“Do you mean,” Kaede begins. “The truth about our pasts and how we got here—like with the Flashback Lights? Or,” she furrows her brow, “or… well, at least I’ve been thinking about _why_ someone would hold a killing game in the first place. If Monokuma or the mastermind or whoever just wanted us dead, they could have done it a dozen times over since they have the Exisals.”

“That is true,” Kiibo says. “I have not thought as much on that, I am afraid. Though Monokuma has seemed insistent on the rules thus far.” He directs his gaze back to the ground, the weight of his next words seeming to almost physically weigh him down. “For instance… they only took action to directly interfere and kill Yumeno-san when it was within their own rules to do so. Though it is horrible, I believe we can rely on the rules to predict Monokuma and whoever is controlling him’s behavior. Or,” he frowns, “Monodam, I suppose.”

Kaede can’t help but laugh slightly at his statement. “Right—I have to admit, I’m also curious about why that happened. It’s like,” she waves a hand vaguely, “it seems like something scripted, if that makes sense? Like something that would happen in a T.V. show.”

“I have not considered that,” Kiibo says. “I have studied the past of cinema’s creation, though I am not as familiar with modern T.V. dramas.”

“Uh, well,” Kaede smiles at him. “Maybe you could watch some when we all get out of here. All of us.”

He senses the intent behind her words and nods determinedly. “Yes. When we all escape together,” he places his hands on his hips triumphantly. “I shall watch many T.V. shows. Iruma-san has actually told me about a few, though I have the feeling they are for a younger audience.”

His statement strikes Kaede as interesting enough, and she makes idle conversation with him as evening sets in. Only when the first strange stars begin to glitter in the sky does Kiibo excuse himself, citing his need to check up on Iruma.

As he runs off, Kaede becomes aware of her own responsibilities again. With night bearing down on her, Kaede wanders back to the dorms, trying to recall the last time she stayed out late to meet with the others. Perhaps Angie had had a point with her night rule—Gonta and Tojo had both been killed at night and Yumeno in the dark. Kaede’s throat tightens as she thinks how she was the only killer bold enough to make their move in broad daylight.

She stops abruptly in her tracks and self-loathing when her ears begin to pick up two voices Kaede has made it a point to pay special attention to arguing with one another.

Keeping her distance, she approaches the dorms slowly until Maki’s slight figure and Ouma’s still smaller one become clearly silhouetted just outside the dorms, the lights from within neatly casting a spotlight over them.

The first words she makes out are Ouma saying, “—someone like you could probably make it through easy without us slowing you down, right? So it’s totally possible!”

Even from her far away position, Kaede can quite clearly see Maki glaring down at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Geeze, Harukawa-chan,” he says. “For an assassin, you’re a terrible liar. Although I guess while you were studying knives, I was studying lies, so—”

“Is there a point to this?” Maki cuts in. “Or are you just going to keep babbling at me?”

“I just want you to tell the truth, Harumaki-chan,” he says. “Of course, you didn’t even tell Momota-chan the truth, so I guess I’m a lost cause, huh?”

She snaps, “Do you want to be killed?”

“If it helps moves things along,” Ouma answers, not wavering even slightly, “then I don’t mind using my life, buuuuut I’m not dying yet, and you’re not gonna break your promise with Momota-chan, right?”

Maki stiffens, and Ouma giggles. “You’re just too easy to read, Harukawa-chan,” he says. “It’s almost boring. Still,” he folds his hands behind his head. “Momota-chan still gives you a pretty long leash, huh? Since you’re still keeping secrets from him, and—”

Maki jerks forward, snatching the front of his scarf up in one fist and yanking it upward to force him on to his tiptoes. “Have you forgotten that I promised to kill you?”

The movement is enough to spur Kaede into action, and she jogs forward, making her footsteps purposefully loud. She forces her voice to sound as nonchalant as possible when she calls out, “Hey, Harukawa-san! What are you—did Ouma-kun do something again?” 

Maki’s head whips to her at the sound, and she nearly tosses Ouma to the ground as Kaede approaches. “It’s nothing,” she says. “Ouma just wanted to tell me he’s going to bed early tonight.”

Ouma doesn’t seem particularly disturbed by his situation and calmly sits up, brushing at the dirt on his now slightly less white clothing with a frown. “Harukawa-chan’s a liar,” he says with a pout. “And I _hate_ liars.”

Despite feeling compelled to come to his defense only moments earlier, Kaede just raises her eyebrows at him. “Then… what did happen?”

“Nothing,” Maki says again. 

Ouma says, “Hey, Akamatsu-chan, I thought you were a pretty bad liar, but Harukawa-chan is so much worse at it, huh?”

Maki’s head snaps to him. “Do you want to—”

“Be killed?” Ouma finishes as he stands. “Geeze, Harukawa-chan, you’re so predictable it’s not even funny.” He sighs and begins inspecting his nails. “Everything about you is so boring and predictable—just talking to you puts me to sleep.”

“Then you’ll shut up and go to your room,” Maki says. “This conversation is over.”

Ouma starts whining. “But—”

“Now,” she says.

Kaede can’t help but smirk. “Harukawa-san, have you actually taken care of children before? You seem like a natural.”

Instead of snapping at her, Maki turns to fidget with her hair. “I just have enough experience to know a brat is a brat,” she mumbles. “Age doesn’t matter if someone refuses to change…”

Ouma lets out another exaggerated sigh. “But, mom, I want to stay up and play with the other kids.”

Maki turns her glare on him, her voice ice cold. “I am going to kill you. And if you don’t get out of my sight in the next five seconds, I will do it now.”

He sticks his tongue out at her. “Fine! I don’t want to talk to you anyway!”

Kaede watches wearily as Ouma skips back inside the dorms as if several threats weren’t just made on his life. Yet with his childish energy gone, Kaede suddenly feels the weight of the tension hanging between her and Maki. “So,” she decides to say. “Harukawa-san… you—”

“If you’re trying to make small talk, just stop,” Maki says. “If you want to pretend either of us has any interest in being friends, you’re a worse liar than Ouma.”

Her words produce a near knee-jerk reaction in Kaede. “Harukawa-san, at this point, I really don’t care about or want to be your friend, okay? And maybe that makes me,” she sighs, “maybe that makes me a hypocrite and… a much worse person than someone like Kaito, but we still need to be able to talk to each other, okay?”

Maki quirks an eyebrow. “Do we have anything to talk about?”

“Yes,” Kaede says, deciding to be straightforward. “I actually need to ask you something: Kaito said you disappeared during the blackout to go check on something—so,” she straightens her shoulders to brace herself for whatever reaction is likely to come her way, “what were you checking?”

Maki turns away, hesitating. “That doesn’t matter.”

“Harukawa-san—”

“Do you want to be—”

The doors to the dorms push open, and both Kaede and Maki turn to see Momota suddenly standing between them, confused but already in the position to mediate. “Hey,” he says, looking over the situation. “You two… getting along?”

“I was just going to bed,” Maki says. “And you should go to your room as well.”

He pulls a face. “What? Nah, I got training to do, ‘specially since I’ve been slacking off lately.”

“Absolutely not,” Maki says. “I forbid—”

“You’re not my mom, Harumaki,” he says, grinning teasingly at her. “‘Sides, I got something I need to talk to Kaede about anyway.”

His words peak Kaede’s curiosity. “You do?”

Maki barely seems to hear her. “And you can’t say whatever it is when I’m around?” 

Momota frowns. “I mean, I could, but it’s based on something we were talking about earlier, and I’d have to fill you in and shit.”

Maki sounds almost as childish as Ouma usually does when she says, “So?” 

“I can have a private conversation with Kaito,” Kaede says. “Just because you like him doesn’t mean you have to—”

Maki’s face burns red. “I don’t—I—” 

She fusses with her pigtails almost in a fit, and Momota furrows his brow in confusion. “You… alright, Harumaki? Something—”

“Do you both want to be killed?” she snaps for perhaps the hundredth time that night as far as Kaede’s concerned. 

Momota seems more worried than anything else, “Hey, if you need to talk to me about something, you know I’ll always fucking listen and shit, right?”

His words do nothing to help, and Maki stares at him blankly for a moment before bodily shoving past both him and Kaede into the dorms, slamming the glass doors shut behind her. 

Momota blinks after her. “I… what the hell just happened?”

“I think you two might be on slightly different pages about a few things,” Kaede supplies vaguely. “But that aside, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Her question brings a sobriety to his face that Kaede can recall seeing only rarely, and he jerks his chin towards the arbor. “Let’s talk away from here—don’t really want anyone else listening in.”

He begins to walk ahead, and Kaede follows, barely keeping her mouth shut as suspicion rises over her. Momota stays silent on their short trip as well, only speaking once they reach the arbor, and he takes a moment to crane his neck in all directions to see if anyone has decided to spy on them.

“Guess here’s as good as anywhere else,” he mumbles.

“I suppose,” Kaede answers. 

Momota can’t help but laugh. “Hey, I know I’m acting real fucking shady right now, but it’s nothing serious, I swear. I just wanted to say I’ve been putting some thought into what you said earlier about,” he frowns, “about if you had a way to kill the mastermind and shit.”

Kaede feels her heart seize up in her chest. “And?” she prompts noncommittally.

“And,” he sighs and all but collapses on to the bench beside them. “And I think I’d do it. It’s fucked up, but if it’d save everyone… well, anyone would take that shot, right?”

Her mouth twists into a tight line, and even though he’s openly vindicating everything Kaede has done, she can’t help the growing sickness rising up in her throat. “But it’d still be one of us,” she says. “I mean, what if it was me?”

Momota laughs. “You’re not the fucking mastermind.”

“How do you know?” Kaede persists. “How can you be sure that anyone—”

“‘Cause I’ve decided I trust you,” he answers plainly. “And when I trust someone, I fucking trust them. Simple as that.” He shrugs, moving to nonchalantly roll out his shoulders. “And if I get betrayed then it’s my own fucking fault—but that’s not gonna happen ‘cause I picked good people.”

It’s too easy. It’s far too easy, and Kaede physically cannot stop herself from challenging him. “Then who here don’t you trust?” she says. “I mean… we know one of us left is the mastermind, and if you said you’d kill them, then that has to mean you’d be okay with killing one of us, right?”

Momota frowns up at her. “You’re thinking too hard about this.”

“No,” she says. “I’m not. It’s a real question.” She takes a deep breath. “Would you kill one of us—someone you know and maybe thought of as a friend—if it would mean getting out of here?”

“I already said I would,” he answers, voice steady. “But you’re thinking about it all wrong. You don’t have to worry about killing _everyone_ , just whoever the fucking mastermind is. So first I need to figure that out before doing anything else. Also,” he looks up at her searchingly, “you know this whole thing about stopping the mastermind is about saving everyone else, right?”

Kaede sighs and sits down next to him. “I know,” she looks at her knees. “I really, really know that. So,” she forces a smile as she turns to him. “Any guesses?”

Momota lets a breath out through his nose as he runs a hand through his hair. “Getting right fucking into it, huh?”

She shrugs. “We can talk in theory as much as we want, but if you’re serious—”

“I know,” he answers. “Well,” he pauses for a moment. “Harumaki seems pretty hung up on it being Ouma, and there’s gotta be a reason for that, right?”

Kaede snorts. “I think her reason is that she hates him.”

“Well,” Momota says. “I’m not exactly a fucking fan of the guy, either.”

Kaede nods for as much as she would argue against Ouma being the mastermind, there is little she disagrees with on her personal feelings. A half comfortable half expectant silence falls over them and after a while Kaede finally says something that has been weighing on her for far too long. “Do you think the mastermind deserves to die?”

Momota pauses for a moment, staring out at the night sky encasing them. Kaede thinks he’s not going to answer at all when he finally says, “I think we deserve to live. And if it’s us or them…” he shakes his head. “Getting caught up in all the morality stuff—we’re just trying to fucking survive, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of about that.”

Kaede bites her lip when she follows his gaze to stare off into space. Trying to survive. Was that what she was doing when she grabbed the shot put from the warehouse? Was that what Amami was doing when he was wandering around the mastermind’s lair? 

She reaches up to adjust Saihara’s hat to allow her to watch Momota from the corner of her eye without him noticing. He seems as confident as always, though there’s a seriousness hanging over that seems almost entirely new. She remembers confessing to Tenko what she had done. It had been hard, but it had seemed right. Kaede watches Momota for a moment a longer then turns away silently. 

The quiet floating between them is something is more calm than uncomfortable, and since Momota doesn’t prod her to speak, Kaede remains silent, using the moment to listen to the night around them, devoid of any life that isn’t the two of them… and, after a moment, a set of footsteps moving hesitantly towards them.

Kaede turns and smiles when she sees Tenko approaching warily as if afraid she’s interrupting something. Kaede waves her over. “Tenko-san,” she says brightly in greeting, causing Momota to turn as well.

“Hey, Chabsahira,” he grins. “Wanna come train with us?”

Tenko frowns but regains her confidence enough to come sit beside Kaede with little dithering beforehand. “Momota-san should not strain himself,” she says. “Also neither of you appear to be exercising.”

“We’re mostly just talking,” Kaede says. “So maybe we’re training our minds?”

Momota laughs. “Sure, that sounds good. In astronaut training, studying is just as fucking important as physical conditioning shit, you know.” He leans around Kaede. “You ever study for Neo-Aikido or whatever, Chabashira?”

Tenko bristles at his question, seeming more vibrant and alive than Kaede has seen her all day as she readies herself to launch into a lecture. “Neo-Aikido is about the spirit and the body together—neglecting one over the other would completely be against the point of—”

She goes on and Momota laughs and asks questions that Tenko answers with vigor, and Kaede smiles as she listens. For them, the night moves on in a peace Kaede hadn’t realized she’d been missing.

-

Elsewhere, Hoshi fiddles with his cigarette outside the door to Maki’s room. The door is impassive and the night outside even more so, and he takes a breath before reaching out to press her doorbell once. He waits for a moment and idly ponders that if she refuses to answer, he could probably ring it a hundred more times to trick her into thinking he’s Momota. 

He doesn’t need to, however, as the door pulls open a crack for one of Maki’s red eyes to peer down at him. Hoshi doesn’t have to say anything for her to open it further, the meaning behind his visit already likely deciphered. 

Still he feels the need to say, “Harukawa—we need to talk.”

Maki regards him coolly. “About?”

“Don’t play dumb,” he sighs. “You wouldn’t have opened the door if you didn’t know why I was here. Also,” he gestures vaguely at her with his cigarette. “I know you tricked Momota, but I saw it, too, so don’t bother lying—it’ll make this whole thing easier.”

She shifts, crossing her arms. “Fine then. I still don’t think there’s anything to talk about.”

“Really now?” Hoshi says. “You’re just going to ignore me?”

“Is that a problem?” Maki asks. “It’s not like we’re friends.”

“Never thought we were,” Hoshi replies evenly even as her stubbornness wears on his patience. “Doubt anyone here would mistake you as friends with anyone other than patient zero.”

A light switches in Maki’s expression and she hisses, “Do you want to be killed?”

Hoshi just shakes his head. “Really don’t know what kind of answer you’re expecting when you ask that. Also,” he looks up at her unflinching as he says, “you know he’s going to die, right?”

“No,” Maki says. “I don’t.”

“I said not to lie to me,” he says. “It doesn’t take an expert to figure out his days are numbered, so the only real question is if he’ll die from whatever’s making him cough up blood or if someone’ll kill him first.”

“No one is going to touch him,” she says.

“Then it’ll be the disease,” Hoshi says. 

“Shut up,” Maki snaps. 

Hoshi shrugs. “Not saying it’s a bad thing. Honestly sounds like a better way to do than whatever’s coming for the rest of us.”

“I told you to stop talking about him,” she says. “Surely you’re not idiotic enough to come here just to mock me.”

“Then I’ll say what I actually wanted to.” Hoshi pauses and lets out a sigh, eyes focused on the cigarette he worries between his fingers. “I just wanted to tell you that if you try and kill someone… I’ll help you get away with it.”

Maki blinks. “What?”

He doesn’t look up from his cigarette. “Don’t think I stuttered.” 

Maki’s eyes flicker over him, attempting to decipher whatever part of his words she assumes he must be keeping secret. “Have you completely given up on living, then?”

Hoshi shakes his head. “This isn’t about me, and it’s not about that. Now,” he pockets his cigarette, “one more question.”

“I’m not sure if I’ll answer it,” she says.

“Fair enough,” he replies. “Just wanted to ask—you’re sure Ouma’s the mastermind?”

“I am,” Maki says, weighing her words carefully. “There’s no evidence for it being anyone else. Why are you asking?”

He lets out a humorless laugh. “Think I’ve made myself pretty clear already. You know,” he stares up at the ceiling spotted with florescent lights as fake as the stars outside, “I’ve been wondering why I made it this far while so many others have died. Going all the way back to Amami,” and then he turns to the ground. “They all wanted to live—guess it just doesn’t seem fair to me. Haven’t thought I’ve had a future for a long time, but I’m starting to finally think I know what it is.”

Maki narrows her eyes. “If you’re planning to commit a murder, know that I will not return whatever bizarre favor you’re trying to offer me.”

“Didn’t expect you to. After all,” he smirks. “You said it yourself—we’re not friends.” He turns away from her then. “Goodnight, Harukawa.”

She doesn’t say anything back, and Hoshi hears her door click quietly shut behind him. Without the bustle from Angie’s curfews crowding everyone together at the same time, the dorms feel empty, and Hoshi thinks he could almost reach out and touch the absence in the space beside him that used to talk about nature and manners and how the world was filled with so many wonderful things. 

Hoshi reaches his own door and thinks maybe it’s a good thing he’s the only one left around to know the truth. Maybe it’s a good thing he wasn’t able to find a reason to live.

-

Kaede’s morning walk to the school is a cheerful one. She makes it with Tenko, and Shirogane hurries a few steps from the dorms to catch up with them before immediately launching into an odd rambling story about the dream she had last night. Kaede half listens and half watches Tenko, the other girl still seemingly swept up in a deeply profound sadness though not one that crushes her completely anymore. 

The conversation between them is rather meaningless but it fills the silence, and Kaede can’t help but smile as Tenko asks questions and adds comments, not to the same lively extent she had been when speaking with Momota the night before, but something close enough to normal.

Yet Tenko still stops abruptly when they reach the stairs to the second floor, and she quickly excusing herself with an obvious lie that she’ll get breakfast later before running off without another word of explanation. The cafeteria looms. Kaede bites the inside of her cheek as Shirogane coughs awkwardly into her hand before saying, “Um, shall we then?”

They make their way there a touch less assured than before, Shirogane spending the remainder of the trip prattling on about gossip and the grandeur of potential romances between their classmates as if they weren’t in a killing game.

She cuts herself off when they finally reach the cafeteria, and Kaede pushes the doors open for an explosion of sound to greet them.

Tenko’s the only person missing, and thus the only person who misses the sight of Momota slamming both his hands on the table, shouting, “Alright! I’ve had enough of you all just sitting around on your asses feeling sorry for yourselves!” 

Beside her, Shirogane squeaks at the sudden burst of noise, ducking behind Kaede for protection. Kaede, meanwhile, is mostly just confused. “Kaito?” she says taking a step forward, Shirogane scuttling to keep up. “What’s going on?”

“Good question,” Hoshi muses, eyes focused on the cigarette between his fingers rather than whatever spectacle Momota seems intent at putting on.

“What’s going on,” Momota says. “Is that we’re gonna fucking stop Monokuma or Monodam or whoever the fuck thinks they’re the boss of us from just doing whatever they want! I say,” he slams his fists together, “that we stop moping around and fight back!”

“While I am all for standing unified against Monokuma and despair,” Kiibo says. “I do not believe physically fighting back would accomplish much.” 

“Hush, Kiiboy,” Ouma says, eagerly sitting forward. “I wanna see where Momota-chan’s going with this.” His grin widens as he practically bounces in his chair, and his eyes practically sparkle as he says, “it’s probably somewhere really dumb!”

Kiibo frowns. “If you believe that is the case than why would you—”

“I say,” Momota says, voice rising over them. “That our first step is we need to do something about the fucking Exisals, and once those are out of the way,” he pumps a fist, “all we gotta do is break down the bars on the cage!”

Iruma snorts. “And how the fuck would we do any of that shit, space case?”

It’s only half a surprise that Maki’s the one to speak up in support. “The Exisals were disabled before as was Monokuma during the blackout. If one of those not insistent on withholding vital information would decide to share how Yumeno did such a thing, we might actually be able to escape.”

“B-But,” Shirogane stutters from behind Kaede, “Yumeno-san w-was…” she swallows, nervously shaking her head, “Yumeno-san was killed for doing that, wasn’t she?”

“The real problem,” Hoshi says, still not looking up. “Is escaping in the first place…”

Kaede blinks. “Why is that a problem?”

He goes silent, and Iruma says, “H-Hey, weren’t you one of the people who was all about escaping when Sunday school started spewing shit a-about starting a fucking cuck cult and all of us staying here forever?”

Very gently Kiibo says, “Iruma-san, you also joined Angie-san’s student council.”

Hoshi mercifully ignores Kiibo’s comment, instead just shrugging. “Guess I did.”

Maki stares hard at him. “Hoshi makes a reasonable point—we can’t know what the outside world is like if we were to leave here.”

“Well we have an idea at least,” Kaede says. “But even if we didn’t or it’s something awful, anything has to be better than staying here—anything’s better than being trapped in this game.”

“Exactly!” Momota says. “Which is why we need to actually start fucking doing something about it!”

“Yeah!” says Ouma springing up out of his chair. “A bunch of people recklessly charging the Exisals would be pretty exciting,” he taps a finger to his chin, “then pretty boring since the game would go on with less players…”

Momota throws his hands in the air. “I’m not gonna try and fight a giant robot with my fists, idiot. I’m sayin’ Iruma or Kiibo should build something to take ‘em down.”

Kiibo shakes his head. “Despite being a robot, myself, I am not very knowledgeable about electronics, nor do I wish to be, and it is robophobic of you to presume that I would be.”

“Then what about you, Iruma-san,” Kaede says. “Could you make anything to help us escape? Like maybe a bomb to blow up some of the bars on the cage or anything that could, uh,” she chooses her words carefully, “disable one of the Exisals or get it to fire at the cage?”

Ouma adds, “Maybe a super cool invention to help us get through Akamatsu-chan’s completely hopeless tunnels?”

Iruma wilts at the stares turned on her. “I-I would—a-and totally can!—make shit like that, but,” she flips her hair over her shoulder. “A genius inventor like me has priorities and crap, and I got somethin’ else I’m working on.”

“And this something else is more important than our escape?” Maki asks. “Or perhaps do you want us to remain trapped here?”

The accusation causes Iruma to suddenly seize up, physically trembling. “I-I-I—what the fuck are you saying!? I’m not—I’m—Bakamatsu, tell her!”

The sudden shout for help catches Kaede off guard. “W-What?”

“Of course you’d ask her,” Maki says. “One of the only people more suspicious than you.”

“Oh wow!” says Ouma delightedly. “I wonder who Harukawa-chan will blindly accuse next? I sure hope it’s me!”

She glares at him. “It is you.”

Ouma laughs. “Man, predicting Harukawa-chan is just too easy! I’m starting to think she’ll never do anything interesting. Let’s see,” he taps a finger to his chin. “What could Harukawa-chan do that would be not boring?”

“Hey,” Momota snaps. “Leave her alone.”

“She could tell a really big lie,” Ouma says, ignoring him. “I mean, she was already trying to do that until Akamatsu-chan tattled on her about being an assassin, but maybe she could tell an even bigger and better lie.”

“Ouma-kun,” Shirogane says. “What are you talking about? Do you know something about—”

“He doesn’t know anything about anything,” Maki says. “He’s just an idiot trying to act smarter than he is, that’s all.”

“He’s not wrong though,” Hoshi says, words casting a silence over the room as all stares turn to him. “A lot of us are probably lying about one thing or another… that’s just the way Monokuma built his game.” 

“Hoshi-kun?” Shirogane says nervously.

Kaede squares her shoulders. “He’s right—this game is built on paranoia and us being unable to trust each other, and,” she lets out a deep breath, “pretending we all know what everyone else is thinking or planning to do is… arrogant, I suppose, and it’s why we keep being blindsided whenever there’s a killing.”

Maki crosses her arms. “Assuming to know another person’s values or world view is an easy way to get yourself killed.”

“So you’re agreeing with Hoshi-chan and Akamatsu-chan now? Even though their whole point is that you’re a big fat liar?” Ouma laughs. “Hey, Harukawa-chan, do you ever think for yourself?”

“Hey!” Momota barks. “I thought I told you to leave her the fuck alone.”

Ouma clicks his tongue. “Momota-chan, even if she just says dumb things like ‘oh I’m gonna kill you because I’m an assassin in case you forgot,’ Harukawa-chan can still at least _speak_ for herself,” his grins darkens. “Can’t she?”

Maki glares at him darkly, “Even though it doesn’t help us escape this game—which it will—I am going to kill you.”

Momota looks between them, brow furrowed and internally weighing something Kaede can only guess at. He opens his mouth, but Hoshi, of all people, manages to beat him to it. “And then there will be one less of us in the world…” he sighs and pockets his cigarette, finally looking up, but only at Maki. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

Her posture shifts. Momota seems even more concerned that he did a moment ago, and moves to take back the conversation. “No one’s going to kill anyone,” he says frowning, and it worries Kaede that he feels the need to repeat that, again saying, “no one’s… no one’s killing anyone.”

Kiibo doesn’t seem to share Kaede’s feelings saying, “Correct. As long as Harukawa-san keeps guard over the motive, no one will have reason to attempt murder.”

“But what if Harukawa-chan kills someone?” Ouma asks. He begins rubbing at his suddenly watery eyes. “She always says she will, and she’ll probably go after me or Akamatsu-chan…”

Kaede shakes her head. “You’ve said that before, but—”

“But she’s not going to hurt anyone,” Momota finishes. “And we’re not having this _fucking_ meeting to _fucking_ argue with each other. We’re here to work together for once in our goddamn lives.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Iruma shouts, suddenly jumping to her feet, chair clattering behind her. “Listen, I asked Bakamatsu to do this for me later, but,” she straightens and jerks a thumb towards herself. “I-I’ll have you all know the great, genius, girl inventor, Iruma Miu, has started makin’ something that’ll get us all out of here!”

The others all turn to her. Shirogane gasps, “You are?”

Momota throws his hands in the air. “The fuck didn’t you say anything earlier?”

Kaede quirks an eyebrow. “Iruma-san?”

“W-W-Well,” Iruma stutters before descending into mumbling.

With Iruma suddenly shrinking over the attention being directed her way, Kiibo says, “Yesterday, Iruma-san spent quite a bit of time preparing something in the computer room.”

His comment spurs Iruma to action. “R-Right! A-And it’s gonna be ready really fucking soon!”

“Is that right…” Hoshi says, regarding her warily.

Kaede asks, “Whatever you’re making will help us escape?”

“You fucking bet your blow-up tits it is,” Iruma says.

“So,” Shirogane says. “Does that mean… we figured out how to end the killing game then?”

Maki says, “If Iruma’s telling the truth, I see nothing else to talk about.”

“Oh,” says Ouma. “But what if Iruma-chan’s the one telling a really big lie?”

“And why would she fucking do that?” Momota asks, rolling his eyes. 

Ouma just keeps smiling. “I don’t know—maybe Iruma-chan wants to keep the game interesting, too.”

“Ouma-kun,” Kiibo says sharply, rising from his place at the table as well. “If you are implying Iruma-san would—”

“Hey, Kiiboy, maybe you already forgot because you’re just a robot,” Ouma says. “But Akamatsu-chan already said it’s pretty arrogant to assume you know what other people are thinking.”

Kiibo stands his ground. “Maybe that is true, but I know Iruma-san, and I know she is a good person who would never harm one of her friends like you seem to be suggesting.”

Iruma stares at him with wide eyes. “K-Kiibo…”

Ouma stares at him with blank eyes. “Hmm.”

“Got nothing to fucking say for yourself now,” Momota says.

Ouma stays silent a moment longer before folding his hands behind his head and smiling. “I think I’m done. I just hope you all find the truth you’ve been looking for, that’s all.”

Kaede watches him carefully as he moves past her towards the door. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He places a finger to his lips as he pushes the door to the cafeteria open with his shoulder. “Just that a few balls are going to drop soon.”

Kaede clenches her jaw as he disappears, all too aware of the meaning behind his taunt, even with the others exchanging confused looks behind her. 

Breakfast continues on in relative peace despite the tensions still clearly hanging in the air. Hoshi excuses himself after a few minutes, as does Iruma—boasting about how she needs to keep working on her new project—with Kiibo following after, carrying his own ramblings about how sure he is Iruma’s new project will bring them all hope.

When the two leave as a pair, Shirogane sighs dreamily. “They’re so cute together, and here I was thinking romance was dead.”

Momota snorts. “What’s more romantic than someone who can’t fucking talk without spitting and a robot?”

“Momota-kun, Kiibo-kun would probably be very upset if he heard you say that,” Shirogane chides. “Also do you really not believe in romance?”

Kaede had already been watching Maki out of the corner of her eye and notices her seem to perk up slightly at the question. She has to poorly disguise her urge to laugh in shock with a cough, though Maki seems too focused on whatever Momota’s response will be to pay her much attention.

Momota just snorts, clearly oblivious to the weight of his answer. “I believe in us getting the fuck out of here—wait,” he screws up his face. “Is this the shit you said Shirogane was talking about yesterday, Kaede? Like love triangles and all of that crap?”

“Ah, well,” Kaede says, distinctly aware of Maki’s violent gaze. 

“Akamatsu-san!” Shirogane scolds, coming to her rescue. “Why did you tell him?! Ugh,” she presses her hands to her face. “I’m so embarrassed now…”

Momota starts laughing, and Kaede smiles along, happy enough that the conversation seems to be over. 

Then Maki says, “But… do you think it’s possible given our current situation?” she frowns at the table. 

“What possible?” Momota asks. “Getting a crush? I mean, I guess.”

Maki keeps glaring at the table. Then she lists, “Akamatsu liked Saihara, and Chabashira liked Yumeno, and Hoshi liked Gokuhara… and half of those people are dead. So,” she shakes her head. “Never mind, this is stupid.”

Maki stands, the lighthearted atmosphere evaporating completely. She walks to the door without a word, leaving the other three to stare after her. 

Shirogane says, “A-Ah, I guess this is my fault since I brought it up. Sorry,” she looks down. “I wasn’t really thinking…”

“It’s fine,” Momota says waving his hand as he gets up from the table as well. “I’m gonna talk to her.”

Kaede raises an eyebrow at him. “Do you know why she’s upset?”

“No,” he says. “But I’m sure I’ll figure it out. See you later, Kaede, Shirogane.”

They wave him goodbye, and Shirogane says, “Not to start gossiping again, but I feel like things are going to get worse between those two before they get better.” She shakes her head, letting out a sigh. “I guess I’ll just have to pin all my hopes on Kiibo-kun and Iruma-san now.”

Kaede gives her a half smile. They continue making small talk, and some part of the back of Kaede’s mind absently observes that Shirogane seems to talk a lot but say very little. She’s spoken to the girl so many times and still can say so few things about her or any of their conversations. 

But some people are just private, and Shirogane’s probably just scared, and Kaede chats idly with her about nothing over breakfast.

-

In a different part of the school, Hoshi mindlessly walks a few laps around the dorms and other buildings, knowing he should probably just return to his room but finding himself feeling almost rebellious against the idea of doing so. 

Instead he absently looks for bugs and wanders the gardens. It’s only when he reaches the stairs down to the labs on the outskirts of the school that a thought occurs to him. He takes the extra apple he had grabbed during breakfast out of his pocket and makes the walk to the finely crafted dojo before he can let himself over think and back out of his choice. 

Hoshi realizes he also doesn’t even know if Tenko’s there, but he hears the sounds of a training dummy being smacked around reverberating throughout the room when he pushes the front doors open. 

She doesn’t notice him immediately, and Hoshi debates the best way to go about signaling his presence without getting smacked by a highly trained martial artist.

So from his spot near the front doors, he says, “Chabashira, brought you something.”

Tenko whirls around to face him, eyes wide and body positioned to pounce on her intruder. In surrender, Hoshi reaches out his hand baring the apple towards her, and Tenko relaxes almost all at once. Her voice is still tight, however, when she says, “Tenko does not appreciate awful boys sneaking up on her, but,” she glances down at the apple. “Thank you, Hoshi-san. If you put it down, Tenko will try and eat in a minute.”

Hoshi shrugs but does as instructed. “You eat anything yesterday?”

She stiffens at his question. “Kaede-san brought Tenko an apple for breakfast… and Tenko tried to make some toast later…”

“So,” he says. “In two days you’ll have had two apples and some bread.” He looks at the ground. “Not your parent and can’t say I know you that well so, I’m not gonna bother you about it,” he tugs at his hat. “And I’m not about to make you go to the cafeteria either, but…”

“Thank you for your concern, Hoshi-san,” Tenko says. “But Tenko will take care of herself.” She turns back to stare at the training dummy, wiping a bit of sweat from the side of her face. “Tenko has Neo-Aikido, and Neo-Aikido is all about maintaining both the spirit and the body… and Tenko will use it to help,” she stutters for a moment, “h-help guide her through this, a-and whatever else happens next.”

Hoshi nods. “I see. Nice you have something like that… but what if what comes next is,” he frowns. “Harder—what if things only get worse?”

Tenko keeps looking at her training dummy. “Tenko does not want to believe that will happen, but,” she shakes her head and turns back to him. “Tenko also knows that sometimes really bad things happen.”

“Like being trapped in a killing game?” Hoshi suggests.

She smiles wryly. “Tenko doesn’t know why she’s here or why this had to happen,” she says. “She doesn’t know why good people get hurt or hurt other good people,” she moves a hand to wipe at her quickly watering eyes, “she doesn’t know why Yumeno-san… she doesn’t know,” with both hands presses to her face, she mumbles, “she doesn’t know why her training isn’t working…”

Hoshi has no idea what to say, and he turns his face away to give Tenko some privacy as she tries to collect herself again. The room feels hollow and crowded all at once with only the sounds of Tenko’s soft sniffling echoing through it. Hoshi tells himself too much time has probably passed for his words to mean anything to her, but he says, “grief never makes sense—it’s just not what it does. Least that’s how I’ve thought about it… sorry—that probably doesn’t help much…”

Tenko nods, still rubbing at her eyes. Hoshi closes his eyes for a moment and tries to think of something to say. Then, “maybe you don’t really care what I think, Chabashira,” he says, “but you seem like a strong person… think—I think you can probably handle whatever’s coming next even if it’ll be even harder than this,” and he doesn’t say, _you’re not a coward like me._

She nods again and finishes brushing a few stray tears from her eyes. “Th-Thank you, Hoshi-san.”

“Don’t mention it,” he says, turning to leave.

“Hoshi-san,” she calls after him. “Would you like to train with Tenko? Not sparring, but perhaps just poses?”

Hoshi takes a deep breath and stares at the exit looming before him. Then he turns, saying, “sure. Can’t promise I’ll be any good at any of it.”

Tenko smiles at him as he takes his shoes off to step on to the mat, and Hoshi thinks, _might as well do something before the end of the world._

-

And the day passes uneventfully, filled with half finished conversations and words unsaid, and Kaede only feels like she isn’t in a dream when Iruma’s hammering on her door the next morning physically startles her awake.

Still groggy from sleep, Kaede pushes her door open to find Iruma practically vibrating on the other side. Before Kaede can say anything or even fully take in the sight in front of her, Iruma says, “it’s ready! Bakamatsu—everything’s fucking ready!”

Kaede blinks at her. “Iruma-san,” she says glancing over the other girl to take in the bags under her eyes and smell of coffee coming off her in waves. “Did you sleep at all last night?”

“Sleep’s a fucking waste of time,” Iruma says with a wave of her hand. “That’s why my inventions are for—” she cuts herself off with a shake of her head. “Actually, who gives a shit about that? Point is Iruma Miu’s genius, amazing, super invention to get us all the hell out of here is a go!”

That catches Kaede’s attention. “You mean we can get out of here?”

“From a certain point of view!” Iruma says with entirely too much confidence. “Now go fucking wake up the others! This is an all or nothing kind of orgy!”

Kaede isn’t sure how to interpret that statement, but watches as Iruma runs to Shirogane’s door only a few feet away to begin banging her fist on it rather than ringing the doorbell. She sighs, but puts on a smile as the thoughts of actually escaping and actually saving everyone begin to flitter through her mind. She walks across the way to politely ring Hoshi’s doorbell, and it’s only a matter of minutes before everyone is tired but together, following Iruma in a loose parade up to the computer room.

Inside, Kaede sees nine chairs clearly taken from other parts of the school assembled in the room with five on one side of the strange giant box looming over them and four on the other. More curiously, each has an odd visor looking thing on it, and Kaede has to watch her step to not trip over the tangles of wires crisscrossing this way and that across the floor.

Standing before them, Iruma flings an arm out to the side. “Ta-da! Motherfucking virtual reality!” she announces. “With a switch and a press and my genius, every last one of you virgins is free from this hell hole of a school!”

The silence that falls over the room is palpable. Kaede is the first to break it, saying, “So… this isn’t a way to help us escape?”

“I-I said from a certain point of view it was!” Iruma shouts back.

The room then practically explodes with sound as Momota starts yelling about Iruma lying, and Kiibo jumps to her defense with the caveat that she should have been clearer, while Ouma starts giggling about everything really being a game, among the rushes of voices swimming past Kaede’s ears.

Over the sea of yelling, Iruma finally screams, “And I already got the fucking okay from the bears, and they said they’d put cool shit in it, too, so you can go stick a cactus up your diseased ass if you don’t want to come!” and it’s enough to catch Kaede’s attentions. 

“You what?” Kaede asks.

Despite being quieter than most of the current shouting matches going on, her question draws enough attention to bring the room back to a reasonable state of peace. 

Iruma squirms under the sudden attention, but says, “Y-Yeah. I-I asked the bears a-and the robot one thought it would be a good place to put more clues and shit.”

“Wait, clues?” Shirogane asks. “Clues about the outside world? O-Or about our memories?”

“Uh-huh,” Iruma nods. “H-Here, I’ll call ‘em right now.” She cuffs a hand over her mouth before yelling, “H-Hey you furry fucks! Need your help with something!”

There’s an awkward few seconds of silence before the three remaining Monokubs suddenly appear from seemingly nowhere.

Monodam looks at Iruma blankly—who jerks her chin to direct him towards the others—before making a waddling turn to stare at the others. He raises one round paw. “I-THOUGHT-IT-OVER, AND-WORKING-TOGETHER-TO-FIND-CLUES-IN-A-NEW-PLACE-WILL-HELP-EVERYONE-TO-WORK-TOGETHER-AND-GET-ALONG.”

“See!” Iruma says. “I told you!”

Quiet fills the room again, and Maki is the first to say, “This is obviously a trap.”

Kaede can only sigh as yelling starts up all around her anew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back! Reading through chapter 4 transcripts made me realize the pre-VR sequences are a bit odd in pacing, since not too much happens during the day but the night scenes are important, so I ended up switching things around a little bit. 
> 
> Also thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! You guys are too sweet!


	21. Daily Life IX

There’s more yelling to be had. 

In the midst of the shouting and flailing limbs, Kaede sees Monodam standing in the center, beeping anxiously in an attempt to regain some kind of order. 

“EVERYONE,” he says, his voice stilted as ever even in his obvious distress. “EVERYONE, PLEASE-GET-ALONG. THIS-IS-ALL-FOR-THE-SAKE-OF-ENSURING-EVERYONE-GETS-ALONG—”

“How is the fact that Monokuma,” Maki snipes, “supporting this alone isn’t enough to convince you all this is a death trap?”

Iruma flails. “He just really wants us to fucking get along, okay!?”

Monodam dully responds he is not Monokuma, but in the edge of her hearing, Kaede catches Monotaro saying, “Monophanie, psst, Monophanie—we gotta do something.”

The pink one turns to him, mumbling back, “about what?”

He jerks his round head towards Monodam. “About powertrip—I’m telling you, without Dad around, one of us is next.”

“But,” Monophanie says. “Dad didn’t protect Monokid or Monosuke—”

“What we need to do,” he says. “Is find a new dad!”

Monophanie just blinks. “What?”

Kiibo’s voice arcs over the room, then, as he says, “the fact that Iruma-san’s world has clues that can provide hope for our situation in it should encourage us to go—not make us hesitate.” He places a metal hand over his chest. “I believe in Iruma-san’s good intentions, and I believe she did this at her own personal expense for our benefit.” He pauses, closing his eyes briefly before saying, “I have asked my inner voice, and it says that exploring the virtual world is our best course of action. Maybe it will lead to our escape, or to new clues, or even just provide relief from our current situation—all of which will be beneficial.”

A silence follows his almost inspirational words as they soak over the room. Kaede notices Monotaro’s eyes sparking, as he says, “Daddy?”

His earlier assuredness shatters, and Kiibo sputters in indignation while the tiny robot bear rushes to his side, clinging to his leg.

Iruma seizes the opportunity. “K-Kiibs’s right!” she shouts. “So what if the virtual world was first made by Monokuma or some fucking asshole!? It’s full of clues and crap, _and_ I’ve edited the absolute shit out of it, so it’s not dangerous!”

That catches Kaede’s attentions. “Wait, you edited it?”

“Yeah,” Iruma responds. “Took out any crap that could be used as a weapon, or—”

“So,” Shirogane interrupts. “Um, does that mean that if we’re all in the virtual world, no one can be killed?”

Iruma tosses her hair over her shoulder. “The fuck do you think I built this for, limp tits? Long as we’re in Iruma-topia, we’re out of the killing game.”

“That’s what you meant by escape…” Hoshi mumbles to himself. 

“But,” says Tenko. “What about everyone’s bodies?”

She waves a hand. “I dunno—they’ll be here, but we’ll all be in the virtual world, where shit’s on tighter lock down than the stick up Harumukwa’s ass.”

Maki glares. “Do you want to be killed?”

Iruma flounders, scrambling to hide behind Kiibo, who was still in the process of attempting to shake Monotaro off his leg. “I-I just mean—”

“So,” Momota says. “Your mind and body and shit are separate? And you have like an avatar or something like in a video game instead?” 

Kaede frowns. “But what happens if something happens to your virtual body? Will it hurt or—”

“Nothing should happen in the godforsaken first place,” Iruma insists. “Like I said—I fucking stayed up all goddamn night taking dangerous shit out. The only way you could kill someone was if you got real creative, and we all know none of you virgins have any imagination, so it’s fine.”

“B-But it’s still possible?” Shirogane asks. “Someone could be killed inside—”

“And someone could also be killed outside if we stay here,” Maki says. “Our situation doesn’t change.”

Hoshi sighs. “I get it. Guess the real question then is if everyone wants to try and find whatever bait Monokuma put in there.”

Silence falls over them again, punctuated only with Iruma’s boot clomping as she squirms nervously on he spot. Finally, Momota says, “Fuck it. Let’s do it.”

Kaede turns to him. “Really?” she says. 

“Yeah,” he says. “I’m still mad Iruma fucking lied, but it’s like Harumaki said—maybe it’s dangerous in there but it’s also dangerous out here.”

Maki stiffens, but says, “That… is true.” She turns her face away. “We won’t get any closer to actually ending this game if we refuse to take risks…”

“That is correct,” Kiibo says, monetarily looking up from his struggle with Monotaro. “Escaping together should always be our number one priority.”

For the first time since the yelling subsided, Ouma speaks up. “That’s not what she said.”

Kaede frowns at him. “What do you mean? Harukawa-san said—”

“That we should end the game,” he places a finger against his lips. “Kiiboy said we should all try and hold hands and escape together.”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Aren’t those the same thing? Or don’t they go together at least?”

Ouma smiles as he shrugs. “Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t!”

“I don’t know why you seem insistent on twisting my words,” Maki says. “But ensuring the end of this game is still my number one priority.”

“It should be everyone’s priority,” Hoshi says dully. 

“And that means we need to work together to do whatever it takes!” Momota says, picking up his line of reasoning with far more enthusiasm. “And if that means going in Iruma’s shitty computer world, I say we do it!”

Kaede can’t help but smile at his words. “I think we should go to—especially since Iruma-san said it’s at least marginally safer than just staying here, right?”

“Y-Yeah!” Iruma says. “Shit’s fucking safer than Kiibs’s virgini—”

“And there’s a chance will be able to find out more about our missing memories, right?” Shirogane adds.

“IF-YOU-ALL-WORK-TOGETHER,” Monodam adds, “YOU-CAN-DISCOVER-MORE-ABOUT-THE-OUTSIDE-WORLD-AND-BECOME-EVEN-BETTER-FRIENDS. SOMETIMES-IT-IS-STILL-NECESSARY-TO-PUNISH-YOUR-FRIENDS-IN-ORDER-TO-GET-ALONG-BUT—”

Monotaro squeaks, clinging again to Kiibo’s legs. “Dad! Protect me!”

“I-I am not your father!” Kiibo shouts almost desperately. 

“I dunno,” Ouma answers. “A tiny robot being attracted to a big robot—seems pretty suspicious to me…”

“There won’t be any Mono-whatevers to bother us in your program world either, right, Iruma?” Hoshi asks, coolly observing the situation.

“You got it, powerbottom,” Iruma answers. “Only the nine of us our invited to this orgy.”

“So,” says Kaede. “Are we all agreed then? We’re all going in together?”

Ouma skips over to a chair, “Ooh! This is so exciting! Hey, hey!” he pats the chair next to him. “Momota-chan! Come sit next to me!”

Kaede furrows her brow. “I thought you didn’t like him after—”

“I just want to be virtual world buddies with someone big and strong who can protect me,” Ouma says, swinging his legs. “And out of everyone here, Momota-chan would be your number one pick for a meat shield, right?”

Momota just glares, his mouth forming into a tight line. Maki says, “No one here would want to pro—”

“Fine,” Momota says, much to Maki and Kaede’s bewilderment. He walks over, stares down at Ouma grinning up at him for a moment before settling in the chair next to him. “Iruma,” he says. “Wanna hurry up and tell us what the fuck we’re actually doing?”

She springs into action. “Right! Alright, all of you sit the fuck down and—”

“Tenko’s not going,” Tenko says.

Kaede whips her head to face her. “Tenko-san?”

“The fuck do you mean you’re not going!?” Iruma screeches. “Didn’t you just hear all the crap Kiibs and everyone said about escaping or whatever?”

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko did, and she understands, but,” she says. “Maybe everyone said they want to work together to escape, and Tenko doesn’t want to doubt her friends, but she can’t believe that everyone’s telling the truth.”

Hoshi gives her a sidelong look. “This about what happened to Yumeno, isn’t it.”

Ouma hums. “Her killer is someone in this room.”

“You killed her,” Maki snaps.

“Ah, I wasn’t talking to you, Harukawa-chan,” he just smiles. “Hey, Chabashira-chan, who do you think did it?”

“Stop it,” Kaede says, moving to stand in front of Tenko protectively. “And how dare you mock her—”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “It’s fine. Tenko…” she lets out a sigh. “Tenko has been thinking a lot about it—Tenko still believes in her friends but… she also know someone has to be hiding something. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“It’s like what Akamatsu said the other day,” Hoshi says softly. “Thinking you know what’s going on in everyone else’s heads is just arrogant. We’ve all been saying how much we want to work together since day one, but, well,” he shrugs. “There were sixteen of us then, and now there’s not.”

Kaede feels her stomach twist. Every word out of Tenko and Hoshi’s mouths is a near reflection of the thoughts that have been plaguing her ever since the beginning of the killing game and her search for the mastermind. Her search that has gotten far too many people killed. 

Momota breaks the silence, because Kaede’s come to realize that’s what he does. “So what’s the plan then?” He looks to Tenko and his voice is genuinely questioning rather than accusatory. “You think Iruma’s virtual world is full of crap?”

Iruma squawks as Tenko starts speaking over her. “Tenko… still thinks it might be a good idea for some of us to go, but,” her mouth twists into a frown. “Tenko would prefer to stay here and watch over everyone’s bodies—there’s just too high a chance that someone will try and do something when everyone’s distracted, like with what happened with… the blackout.”

“And you’re trustworthy enough to leave alone?” Maki asks, voice cold. “For all we know, you could be planning to kill—”

“She isn’t,” Kaede says firmly. “Tenko-san would never kill someone.”

“And if she did,” Ouma chimes in. “We would totally know it was her, and that would be sooooo boring.”

“S-So what?” Iruma stutters. “You’re just gonna sit here, a-and stare at our helpless bodies?”

Kaede’s face almost involuntarily twists into an expression of disgust at her words while Kiibo says, “I do have to agree that having a lookout to watch over this place while we are not aware of our surroundings is a logical idea.”

“So Chabashira-san will guard us?” Shirogane asks, pressing her hands to her heart. “If have to admit, that does make me feel a little safer…”

Hoshi looks up at Tenko. “You should probably still figure out how to get into Iruma’s program world, though, in case something does happen.”

Tenko nods. “Right. Tenko will do her very best to make sure nothing happens, but she will come get everyone if something does… go wrong.”

The implications of her words make Kaede wince but she says, “Here,” and walks over to the two remaining empty chairs next to Momota. “You can watch me try and setup getting in when Iruma-san tells us what to do so you can know what to do later, even though nothing bad is going to happen.”

Tenko nods again. “Right.”

“My, my,” Ouma says. “It seems like everyone really trusts Chabashira-chan.”

“Of course we do,” Momota says with a snort as Tenko takes her seat next to Kaede, watching intently as the other girl picks up the odd headset before her to inspect it.”

Iruma fidgets. “This… you—you don’t wanna come with us for even a little bit?” she squeaks. “You don’t wanna come find whatever awesome clues or, uh,” she glances to Monodam standing at her feet, “become friends and shit with us?”

“What are you talking about?” Kaede frowns. “I can tell Tenko-san about anything we find when we get done.”

“Tenko is sorry for not helping with the search, if that’s what you are concerned about, Iruma-san” she says. “But she really thinks it is safer for everyone for Tenko to remain here.”

“Yeah!” says Ouma, bouncing in his chair. “Though it’d be really cool if someone tried to fight Chabashira-chan and she had to fight them off!” 

“There is nothing cool about someone attempting to commit murder,” Kiibo says sternly, as he moves to one of the empty chairs, nearly tripping over the Monokubs at his feet as he does so. 

“Yeah!” says Monotaro, pointing a paw at Monodam. “You hear that? New Dad says no killing your siblings!”

The sheer exasperation on Kiibo’s face as he settles into a chair is almost amusing enough to distract from Maki saying, “it would be difficult for someone to fight off Chabashira, especially in such an enclosed space.” She frowns as she walks to the chair next to Kiibo. “Fine. I suppose this is the best we can hope for to put an end to this game.”

“Guess it is,” Hoshi says, moving to sit beside her, and Kaede does not miss the odd, meaningful look he gives her that Maki refuses to glance at. 

Shirogane seems to also recognize the tense atmosphere, though she says little other than “Um, it sure, uh, sure seems that way,” as she takes a hesitant seat next to Hoshi.

Iruma remains the only one still standing, and everyone’s gazes move to her for further instructions, and she starts sweating on the spot. Her eyes dart around at everyone, oddly lingering over Tenko, before she gives almost a full body sigh and stomps over to the last chair. She collapses into and picks up the odd headset before her, lazily waving it around with one hand.

“Alright, look, it’s not that fucking hard,” she says, voice one of frustration. “There’s two wires that’ll hook up your brain into the virtual world. Red goes in the right socket, blue in the left, and if you fuck up,” she gestures vaguely, “I dunno. Something fucky will probably happen—like memory loss or some shit, maybe switching your consciousness with someone else’s, which,” she presses a hand to her chin, “actually that could be kinda cool.”

“Let’s all do our best to ensure we do it correctly then,” Kiibo says quickly, being extra deliberate about the placement of the cords on his visor. “Iruma-san,” he calls, turning it to her. “Is this right?”

She leans over to give him a thumbs up. “Yup. Everyone try to be less of a dumbass than normal and do what Kiibs did.”

Kaede looks up to double check that the position of the wires on her headset matches Kiibo’s, Tenko hovering behind her, probably taking too much effort to commit the relatively simple instructions to memory. 

“Next,” Iruma says. “Put that visor over your ugly mug and flip the switch on your forehead, then bam! Virtual world!”

“That’s all there is to it?” Kaede asks. 

Iruma snorts. “Listen, I made this shit as simple as possible ‘cause I know one of you idiots would figure out a way to screw it up if I didn’t.”

Tenko frowns at her words, but says, “Tenko believes she should be able to do all that by herself if need be.”

“Okay, okay,” says Ouma, bouncing impatiently. “Enough waiting around already! I wanna see what my avatar looks like—I hope it’s really awesome and looks like—”

“It looks like your fugly twink ass,” Iruma says. “I designed all the avatars to look like you guys, except, you know,” she tosses her hair over her shoulder, “better.”

“Aw,” Ouma pouts, placing his visor over his head. “I wanted to be a horse…”

Momota mumbles, “the fuck is wrong with you?” as he moves to do the same.

Kaede gives the two of them a half smile, as she sees something akin to the familiar banter between them returning. She glances across the way to see Shirogane and Kiibo put their visors over their heads as well, before turning back to give Tenko an encouraging smile.

Tenko smiles back, the reason why she’s staying behind looming over both of them as she reaches forward to squeezes Kaede’s hand one last time before Kaede puts the visor over her eyes and flicks the switch.

The experience is almost like that of the Flashback Light as strings of code seem to suddenly flash directly into Kaede’s brain, swimming into her very mind before giving way to a brief blackness.

Then there’s a flash of light, and she’s standing in a rather old looking room, decorated with plain looking rugs, portraits, furniture and a glittering telephone. More curiously, she notices tiny, rounded versions of Momota and Ouma behind her, as well as quick flashes of light that give way to similar versions of Shirogane and Kiibo.

Kaede blinks at them. “You guys are all so cute,” she says without even thinking.

“Me and Momota-chan are always cute,” Ouma grins back. “Except when Momota-chan’s being really gross.”

“Hey, if I punch you does it hurt in real life?” Momota asks.

“Huh?” says Shirogane, jerking to look down at her own body. “Oh, what? These graphics don’t look anything like what Iruma-san said.”

“I… am still a robot,” Kiibo says, sadly, looking at his tiny hands. “That is a bit disappointing…”

Kaede glances down at herself, noting her similarly rendered body. Momota laughs, “Careful, Kaede, you might have trouble if your hat falls off—it’s fucking huge.”

She blinks at him before reaching up as best she can with her oddly proportioned limbs to feel the bill of her hat sticking out over her head. “Oh,” then she notices that the familiar texture of the slightly worn hat registers on her tiny rounded fingers, and she says, “huh, I can actually really feel it.”

“What do you mean?” Shirogane asks.

“Like, um,” she frowns, trying to think how to phrase it. She brushes her fingers across the sleeve of her shirt to demonstrate. “Like, I can feel the textures and stuff of my clothes.”

Her words suddenly seem to register with the others, who all promptly begin feeling along their sleeves or the front of their shirts to confirm for themselves, with the notable exception of Ouma, who opts to grab the sleeve still loosely hanging off Momota’s shoulder.

“Huh,” he says. “Just like I remember in the real world.” He smiles as he lets go, twirling on his toes in a circle. “Man! This place is the absolute coolest!”

“Well,” Shirogane says, watching him hesitantly. “I guess this means we’re able to feel things?”

“Perhaps we should wait for Iruma-san’s confirmation,” says Kiibo. “But it would seem we have all five senses.”

“So I could punch Ouma,” Momota muses.

Two bright flashes of light suddenly appear and fade away to reveal Maki and an even smaller than normal Hoshi. They both turn to look around, inspecting the room and their avatars. Maki mutters, “this is stupid…”

Hoshi tilts his head up to examine some of the paintings on the wall, and Kaede swears she sees the now very large ears on his hat twitch like cat ears. Her first thought is that he now looks absolutely adorable, but she bites her tongue, also knowing how little he would probably appreciate that sentiment.

“Hmm,” Hoshi says. “This feels strange. Odd thinking how this is connected to our bodies back in the real world.”

“Oh yeah,” says Momota. “Guess we don’t really have to worry about anything happening to our bodies in here, huh?”

“That’s right, that’s right!” says Ouma delightedly. “And that means Momota-chan can’t cough up blood and be totally gross in here!”

Momota glares at him, though Kaede still can’t help but find the expression cute due to the avatar’s simplified graphics. For a moment, she internally worries about being able to take anything seriously with everyone looking the way they do when one more flash of light bursts into existence.

It phases out as fast as it came, and Iruma appears, looking around happily at the room before them before stretching her arms over her head. “Ah, I fucking love this place—feels great every time I come here.” She turns to the others. “Well? Ain’t it fucking amazing? Feel like getting down on your knees and thanking me yet—‘cause you should.”

“Iruma-san,” says Shirogane. “I think you lied to us about our avatars. These don’t really look anything like us.”

She waves a hand. “Yeah, I know—they’d be ugly as fuck if I tried making ‘em realistic.” 

“Actually,” Kaede says. “Iruma-san, there’s something I wanted to ask about our avatars. We noticed that we could feel things, so do we have all five senses in here?”

“Bet your whale tits you do,” Iruma answers. “If you feel something in here, your brain’ll send a signal to your body so you get pain, pleasure, all that good shit.”

“So,” says Momota. “If I punched Ouma, he wouldn’t feel it but his brain would?”

She shrugs. “I mean, yeah, basically. Also that reminds me, shit doesn’t break in here. Everything you see—including your avatars—isn’t programmed to break. Like if you decided to be a piece of shit and rip a leg off a table, you wouldn’t get very far. Make sense?”

“That applies to our bodies as well,” Maki says. “So, for instance, if someone decided to jump from a very high place like a cliff, they’d be fine?”

Iruma shakes her head. “No, it’s like what Momomoron said. Your body in here would experience the pain of falling, and your brain would probably freak the fuck out or something.”

“By that,” Hoshi sighs. “I assume you mean die, or something akin to it, right?”

“How the fuck would I know!?” she asks, flailing her arms. “I haven’t tested it!”

“Hmm, seems like Iruma-chan hid quite a bit from us about this world, huh?” says Ouma.

“I-I didn’t hide fucking anything!” she says. “There’s just a lotta crap to explain. Th-That’s all!”

“Is there more we need to know before we can begin our exploration, then?” Kiibo asks.

She turns to him. “Uh, yeah, few things. Next rule about avatar’s is that everyone’s physical capabilities—like your strength and speed and shit—are averaged out across everyone, so we’re all the same.”

“Ooh,” says Ouma. “Does that mean I race Hoshi-chan now?”

“But you’re the same speed,” says Shirogane. “So it would be a tie?”

“When we decided we want to leave,” says Hoshi pointedly. “For whatever reason—how would we go about doing that?”

Iruma jerks her chin towards the sparkling phone against the wall. “If you wanna log out, go over there and say your name in the receiver. That’s the only way out, and if you log back in, you’ll appear here again.” She frowns. “I think that’s everything.”

“I have more question,” Kaede says. “You mentioned earlier that you come here a lot, so does that mean you’ve already done some exploring on your own?”

“Oh yeah,” says Momota. “Any idea where our mystery clues are?”

Iruma huffs and moves to fish something out of her pocket, producing a small card bearing a design identical to that of their monopads. “Was gonna talk about this when I had an example to show you and shit, but since Bakamatsu’ eager, might as well do it now. Anyway, you should all have one of these somewhere on you.”

Kaede takes a second to fiddle around to sling her backpack off her shoulder, and upon opening it, she immediately identifies the sole object inside as a card similar to the one Iruma displayed. She takes it and turns it over in her hands, seeing that the side not decorated in Monokuma black-and-white has little but her name inscribed on it. “Are these IDs?” she asks

“Basically,” Iruma says. “Thing is, this world was always meant to be some team building shit like tiny, green, and homicidal was talking about earlier. And that means that if you wanna access half the shit here, you need other people with you.”

“I see,” says Kiibo, examining his own card. “Are there card readers or something of that nature stationed around various parts of this world?”

“You got it,” Iruma says. “And all of them need you a certain number of different swipes to get through.”

“Oh, so a friendless loser like Iruma-chan would have trouble getting around,” says Ouma. “I see, I see.”

Maki asks, “Can’t you edit this world? Why not just get rid of them?”

“‘Cause when I asked, the bear said he’d take the clues and shit out,” she answers. 

“I guess they’re just really determined for us all to work together,” Shirogane says. “Um, also is it going to be a problem then that Chabashira-san isn’t with us?”

It seems like a light suddenly clicks on in Iruma’s eyes. “Ah, fuck!” she shouts, pressing her hands to her face. “Why didn’t I think of that earlier?”

“So we need her here then?” Hoshi prompts. “There’s actually a place that’ll only open if there’s nine people?”

Iruma seems lost in her own mumblings, so Kaede takes the opportunity to add, “There were twelve of us when the computer room first opened, so maybe there are some areas that are just locked off for good now.”

“Fuck,” says Momota, attempting to a run a hand through his hair, in spite of the familiar gesture not working with his avatar. “Guess we should have come here earlier then.”

“No, no,” Iruma says, waving a hand. “It’s fine, most any doors need is four or something, just…” she lets out a groan. “Fuck me.”

“Is something the matter, Iruma-san?” Kiibo asks.

She groans again and begins to stomp towards the door. “It’s not fucking important—now c’mon there’s a fucking map or some bullshit over here—just fuck my life…”

Kaede absently thinks that such a change in temperament would likely attract more attention for anyone other than Iruma as the other girl huffs again, taking out her ID and running it over a small, strange machine on the door frame that Kaede hadn’t noticed before. Iruma says, “If you wanna leave you gotta swipe your ID or some shit—this one only needs one to get through so form a line or something, I don’t fucking care.”

After saying that, she continues mumbling as she walks out of the room, the door swinging shut behind her automatically. Alone with the others in the room, all Kaede can really do is share a general shrug of confusion with everyone before walking up to the card reader herself.

She waves the card in front of it, and the machine lets out a small beep as the door swings open. “Well,” she says casually over her shoulder to the others. “Seems straightforward enough.”

She walks through the now open door, barely catching Ouma asking what would happen if everyone traded cards and Momota insisting that no one would trade with him. As Kaede steps through the opening, however, for a very brief moment for entire vision goes dark and the voices she had been listening to seconds before abruptly cut off. Before she can fully process what is happening or realize that her body is immobilized, Kaede finds herself in a reasonably empty hall, the door from before closed behind her.

She quickly spots Iruma standing in front of a wall plastered with maps, and rushes over to her, “Iruma-san, when I went through—”

“Loading screen,” Iruma says, waving a hand dismissively. “There’re ones between each room and shit—you get used to it.”

Kaede opens her to protest that what just happened to her is something she would not like to get used to when she hears the door open behind her again. She briefly glances behind her to see Hoshi blinking in confusion.

“That was—”

“Loading screen!” Iruma says, growing irritated. “Am I just gonna have to go down the line, telling each of you—”

Shirogane suddenly appears behind Hoshi, slightly bumping into him and letting out a yelp. She looks up, concealing her panic poorly as she says, “W-What just happened? For a second everything went—”

Iruma begins going to go on a tirade, only to start it anew when Maki appears to echo her confusion and force Iruma to start over.

Hoshi takes the opportunity to approach Kaede standing near the maps, casually saying, “the second you left, they started fighting, by the way.”

Kaede laughs. “I think they’d do that even if I stayed.”

“Probably true,” Hoshi replies before jerking his chin towards the map. “This the layout we’re looking at?”

“I think so,” Kaede says. “Looks like there’s a mansion with a first floor, roof, and basement? And then an outside area on this map. Iruma-san,” she turns to interrupt Iruma’s yelling. “Is this everything?”

“Yeah,” Iruma sighs as she stomps back over. “Whole fucking program right here.”

Kaede frowns. “You sound disappointed.” 

“I’m not fucking disappointed,” she snaps. “I’m just… I’m mad at myself.”

“There a reason for that?” Hoshi asks. 

Kaede would question her further, but the door opens again, this time to reveal Ouma who happily skips towards them, seemingly undisturbed by the loading screen in the slightest. “I hope there are no more one-at-a-time doors,” he says brightly. “I don’t think Momota-chan could handle another one.”

Hoshi rolls his eyes. “Wonder why.”

“Every door is a fucking one-at-a-time door,” Iruma says. “If it’s a two person door, you and your fuck buddy both swipe your cards, then enter in the order you did it, and the program tells anyone trying to sneak in for a threesome to go fuck themselves.”

Ouma nods. “Oh, I see, I see. That’s—”

Momota appears, then, announcing his presence with, “What the fuck just happened?”

Iruma’s avatar’s face turns an interesting shade of red, and the last arrival—Kiibo—manages to enter at an opportune point in her yelling to catch a full explanation of the program world’s quirks. 

With that taking far more time and cursing than Kaede really thought it needed, Iruma finally throws a hand out towards the maps on the wall with far less enthusiasm than before.

“Before you ask,” she says. “I didn’t make these, and I haven’t personally been to most of these fucking places because of the shitty multiple people rule, so I don’t know what it’s in ‘em other than what I could figure out from looking at the code.”

“Then, um,” says Shirogane. “Can we be sure they’re safe?”

Iruma snorts. “I already fucking told you, I took out all the dangerous shit! ‘Took out’ as in deleted all the codes for, so stop getting your panties in a twist.”

“Okay, okay,” says Shirogane. “Geeze…”

Hoshi says, “Akamatsu and I were looking at them earlier. Gonna assume we’re in this mansion place, right?”

“Yup,” says Iruma. “Right now we’re in the entrance hall, and the place we spawned in was the salon.”

“It appears there is also a kitchen, cafeteria and bathroom,” Kiibo says, examining the map. “However, would we need any of those rooms?”

“Well,” says Ouma. “You don’t really need any of those rooms anyway, right Kiiboy? Just because you don’t need them doesn’t mean the rest of us should have to be deprived…”

“Real question,” Momota says. “Eating isn’t a thing here, right? You said items and crap can’t break, so trying to eat would be… really fucking weird or something.”

Iruma shrugs. “Those were here when I made the program. Figure there’re for aesthetics or some shit.”

“So did you make anything in this world?” Kaede asks. “Or only take things out?”

“Mostly I just removed a bunch of death traps—swinging saw blades, rat poison, a giant fucking hole in the floor—crap like that,” says Iruma. “There are a few Iruma Miu special touches here and there, though.”

“If there’s a giant gold statue of you somewhere in this world, I’m leaving,” says Maki.

“U-Uh, w-well,” Iruma begins fidgeting with her hair.

Kaede presses a hand to her forehead. “Did you really?”

“H-Hey! New idea!” Iruma says quickly. “How ‘bout we all make a rule that none of us leave here ‘til we find out the shit about the outside world or something? Sound good?”

Ouma raises his hand. “Question!”

With great hesitance, Iruma says, “Y-Yeah?”

“How many people do we need to get into each room in here?” he asks, his question innocent enough. “Because if too many people leave, then this place will be just as useless as Iruma-chan is normally…”

Iruma scowls, and says tightly, “Basement and the church both need three, but everyone where else is two.”

“Even the bathroom?” Shirogane asks.

“Okay, bathroom’s one,” Iruma says. “But unless you avatar suddenly needs to blow chunks, I doubt anyone would ever fucking go there, you weird perverts.”

Momota walks over to the map of the outside area and presses his small hand against it the picture of the building on the far side. “Is this the church thing you said earlier?”

She nods. “Yup, unfortunately since Chabashitra bitched out, trying to get everyone in there at once isn’t possible.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Kaede. “If there’re eight of us…”

“The card readers go both ways, correct?” asks Kiibo. “Which means you if you wanted to leave an area, you would also have to exit with the correct amount of people, right?”

“This is aggressively idiotic,” Maki says. “Who would implement something like this?”

“A homicidal robot bear obsessed with friendship,” Hoshi answers, completely deadpan. “Were you expecting a different answer?”

She rolls her eyes, saying, “Iruma—which parts of this world have you actually physically—”

“Virtually!” Ouma interrupts

“—been to?” 

“This place and outside,” she says. “And the bathroom, I guess. Those are the only places you can go by yourself, so if any of you virgins needs some alone time—”

“I guess what would make the most sense, then,” says Kaede. “Is for us to all maybe to do a cursory walk around together, and then split up into groups to really look around.”

“Two groups of three and one group of two would be most logical based on what Iruma-san has told us, correct?” Kiibo asks.

“Buddy system!” Ouma cheers. “Okay, okay, sooo who do I want to go with?”

“I thought we agreed we’d walk around together first before splitting up?” Shirogane asks. “And we also need an even number of people to go to the roof, right?”

Iruma nods. “Roof should be a good place to go first, too, so we can get a bird’s eye view of—”

“Then I’ll go by myself!” Ouma says, already skipping away. “I wonder what I’ll find outside all alone!”

Kaede stands with the others, staring after him. “Should someone go with him?”

Iruma waves her hand dismissively. “Probably, but there’s not much he can fuck up, so it should be fine. Means one person will have to sit out of the roof party though.”

“I’ll wait here,” says Maki. “It’s just to get a better view of things, right? Momota can tell me if there’s anything remotely interesting.”

Momota gives her an odd look. “You sure, Harumaki?”

Iruma shrugs. “Long as she’s not planning to go choke shota or something, it’ll be fine, and if I had to uninvite one person here from an orgy, flat chest would be top of the list.”

“Do you want to be killed?” Maki says.

“Eee!” Iruma yelps, scurrying over to the nearby two way staircase, waving her card over a machine on the wall next to the one going up. “Kiibo! Bakamatsu! One of you come swipe your card!”

“Why one of us?” Kaede asks as Kiibo hesitantly walks over to do as instructed.

Iruma sprints up the stairs as soon as Kiibo finishes without explanation. He takes a long look up the staircase after her. “Even if Iruma-san has not been able to explore firsthand, it sure seems like she is very familiar with this world. Oh well,” he looks back down. “I suppose we can discuss this world further together later.”

He ascends the stairs easily enough, prompting Kaede to turn to the others. “Alright,” she says. “We probably shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

“Right,” says Shirogane. “I doubt it really matters since we’re all going together, but I can go next with whoever.”

Saying that she moves to the card reader, completing the transaction with little fanfare. Momota takes the moment to look at Maki again. “Really sure you wanna stay behind? I could hang out here instead, you know.”

“It’s fine,” she says. “It’s really not a big deal.”

He gives her a hard stare for a moment before saying, “If you’re sure,” and walking over to join Shirogane.

The two of them ascend the stairs, leaving Kaede alone with Hoshi and Maki. “Guess it’s me and you then Akamatsu,” he says. “Also mind if ask you something, real quick?”

“Um, sure,” Kaede says. “Go ahead.”

“Actually not sure if I’d call it a question, just,” Hoshi shakes his head. “This whole system seems weird to me. But then again I’m not great at computers,” he waves his card over the machine, “or making friends, I guess.”

Kaede isn’t sure how to respond to that and gives him a sympathetic enough smile as she swipes her ID as well. She waits for him to go up the stairs, and feels the need to say some parting words to Maki before leaving herself. “Um, have fun, I guess, Harukawa-san,” she says awkwardly.

Maki just rolls her eyes, and Kaede lets out a sigh before walking up the stairs to join the others.

The loading screen in the middle of the staircase is rather disorienting, but Kaede manages to navigate it with little trouble and soon joins the others on the roof. As soon as she does, she notices the temperature seeming to plummet and hears Momota shouting, “Kaede, look! Snow!”

Sure enough, the roof is covered in powdery white snow, which Momota childishly kicks his feet through, beaming with delight. Kaede watches, and notes aloud, “Huh, you don’t seem to leave footprints, though.”

“I know,” he says. “Fucking weird, right? Hey, Iruma, is it ‘cause of your no breaking shit rule?”

“Kinda?” she answers from the far side of the roof, seemingly hovering over Kiibo as he stares out a telescope. “Mostly I just think the world wasn’t really programmed to know how to handle that. It’s neat, but also a shoestring piece of shit in some places.”

Kaede nods at her explanation, and takes a moment to join Hoshi and Shirogane at staring off the side of the roof in a different direction. What greets her is a bit of landscape and then almost a solid wall of complete darkness. Hoshi seems to notice her surprise and says, “Iruma said it’s the end of the world.”

“That’s right,” Shirogane adds. “Apparently this world is only so big, and that’s the bounds of the program—kind of like the cage back at the school, I guess…”

“Oh, I see,” says Kaede. “So… we’re still trapped even in here.”

Hoshi sighs. “Even in Iruma’s magic escape land, we’re still trapped. How about that…”

Shirogane fidgets, obviously uncomfortable about the tone of their conversation. “Um, there’s also a shed over there,” she says, attempting to change the topic. “Iruma-san checked it out and said you can go in there by yourself. I looked around, and, well,” she frowns, “there’s mostly a lot of junk and, then, uh, well maybe you should see for yourself.”

“That’s worrying,” Kaede says.

“No,” Hoshi says. “I took a quick look in there and it’s mostly just stupid. Also it’s a good thing Harukawa chose to stay behind.”

Kaede gives them a confused look before wandering over to the shed, swiping her card, and enduring the brief loading screen to see a rather plain wood looking building appear into existence around her. It’s less a shelf and more a closet, as Kaede sees a variety of heavy looking winter coats draped before her with several cardboard boxes stuffed full of mothballs below them. 

The only other thing of interest is a second shelf shoved up against the side of the wall, lined with golden, gleaming statues of Iruma in various poses, each inscribing with a title of what Kaede assumes is some sort of achievement underneath. Idly she picks up one of the surprisingly heavy trophies and starts reading, ‘ _best rack in all of_ —’ before rolling her eyes and putting it back down.

Kaede is aware she should likely inspect the room more, but all she can think of is how much time Iruma likely put into making each of the statues before her. Her estimate alone is enough to make her shake her head in disapproval and think how lucky it was for Iruma that both Maki and Ouma opted to not stumble upon her discovery.

She swipes her card again to leave the room, and back out on the roof notices that the others have gathered around Kiibo at the telescope. She walks over asking, “Find anything interesting?”

He shakes his head as he looks up. “Yes and no. This telescope only allows one to see so far due to a second loading screen that supposedly divides this world in half.”

“Really?” Kaede asks.

“Uh-huh,” says Iruma. “It’s right on the other side of the river. Speaking of which, that’s our next destination since we need to head to the church.”

“Isn’t that one of the places where three people have to enter at a time?” Shirogane asks. 

“And there’re will be seven of us if Ouma decides he just wants to wander around on his own,” Hoshi says. “So someone will have to wait outside again.”

Iruma shakes her head. “Nah, forget all that. See—I just need to show you virgins the deal with the river, then we can all split up and go on our merry fucking way.”

“Right, that reminds me,” Kiibo says. “I briefly examined the river through the telescope, and it seems we would need some kind of second bridge to get across since the one in place only reaches half way across.”

His statement is met with little fanfare, though Iruma still says, “Alright, alright, all of you calm down, no need to get excited before the good stuff starts. The great Iruma Miu has got it taken care of.”

“Okay, so,” says Momota. “Can we leave now?”

Iruma wilts. “Y-Yeah, I guess… you can check out my trophy room again if you want…”

Hoshi starts walking away. “Someone swipe come with me so we can leave.”

“I’m with you, buddy,” Momota says, following after him.

“Iruma-san,” Shirogane says gently. “Did you really build a room to show how great you are that you couldn’t even access by yourself?”

She throws her hands in the air. “I built this entire goddamn world—leave me the fuck alone!”

She stomps away, Shirogane, walking behind her asking, “I thought you just edited it?”

Alone with Kiibo, Kaede turns to say something along the lines of how they probably shouldn’t keep the others waiting, but stops when she sees his oddly serious face. He’s says, “Akamatsu-san, excuse me for asking this, but you and Iruma-san are friends, correct? She seems to trust you quite a bit.”

“Uh, well,” Kaede says. “I do consider her to be someone I can trust, and she seems to like being around me… I think.”

He nods. “I see. I suppose you know her reasonably well then.”

“Is something the matter, Kiibo-kun?” Kaede asks.

Kiibo frowns, and for some reason Kaede can tell that his avatar doesn’t have the capabilities to fully portray his sadness. “I mean what I said earlier that I believe Iruma-san is a good person and she would not hurt her friends. However,” he looks at the ground. “I don’t understand why she was so intent on making this world…” he shakes his head. “My apologies, perhaps I am simply over thinking things.”

“No,” says Kaede. “I think it’s something to consider. My guess is that Iruma-san’s just kind of scared, but,” she shrugs. “There’s no way for us to know other than to just ask her straight out, right? When we all split up, she’ll probably want to be in a group with you, so maybe that would be a good time.”

Kiibo smiles. “I suppose you are right. Now, we should probably hurry or Iruma-san might imply something… uncomfortable.”

Kaede grimaces. “Yeah, good point.”

They join the others back at the bottom of the stairs, everyone together except for Ouma, who Maki quickly informs them she did not see during her wait alone.

Iruma leads them out of the mansion, with a small wait enforced due to the need to go through the doors leading outside one at a time, but soon they find themselves outside. The realistic feeling of cold alone is enough to impress Kaede, but the snow draped in piles across the landscape catches her attention at just how pretty it is.

She moves along with the others, admiring the scenery and only stopping when they come to a bridge sticking halfway out across a rapidly moving river as Kiibo had described earlier.

Iruma says. “Right, kids, here’s the deal—this here river is the only way to get across so what we need is a bridge.”

“Why don’t we just use Kiiboy?” a voice calls out, and Ouma happily prances up to them. 

Kiibo frowns at him. “Where you hiding and waiting to show up just so you could insult me?”

Ouma giggles. “Maybe! Does that sound like something I would do?”

“Alright, shut up,” says Momota. “Where’d you run off to?”

Ouma looks up at him, silently blinking his eyes. Then he reaches up a hand to stage whisper, “Momota-chan, I can’t tell you where I went if you also want me to be quiet.”

Maki rolls her eyes, saying, “it looked like he came from the forest over there.”

“Oh,” says Shirogane. “Did you find anything?”

He shakes his head, pouting. “No—it was so boring, I nearly fell asleep. But, but, but,” he scurries around the others to stand on the very edge of the bridge. “I haven’t crossed the river yet, so I hope there’s something really exciting over there!”

“Well, we’re about to find out,” says Iruma. “Now, let’s see, who here looks like they like being ordered around?”

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t,” says Hoshi harshly.

Iruma squirms. “I-I was just thinking who I should ask to go g-get the sign we need…”

“Sign?” Momota echoes. 

“Mhmm, mhmm!” says Ouma. “I saw a funny sign with English on it earlier down near where the rivers connect, but I thought it was pretty dumb so I left it alone.”

“With no objects breaking,” Kiibo says. “If the sign is large enough, could we use that as a makeshift bridge to cross the river?”

“You got it, Kiibs!” Iruma says, confidence surging through her again as she slaps him on the back. “Now which one of you lonely singles wants to go get it?”

No one moves, and Kaede sighs, rolling her eyes. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Sounds good,” says Iruma. “You’ve always been a kinda take charge, top kind of person, huh Bakamatsu?”

Kaede just shakes her head. “I’m not even gonna respond to that. Anyway, Ouma-kun said it was down where this river connects with the smaller one, right?”

“That’s where I saw it,” Ouma says. “Maybe it went away though. Then we’d have a magic mystery of things moving on their own.” He throws his hands in the air. “How exciting!”

“I’m going to assume that hasn’t happened,” Kaede says before turning away from them. 

The walk is short, and the sign is easy to find due to being the only thing of interest sticking out of the snow. The English writing on it catches her attention briefly but only for a moment as she makes her way back to the group.

Nothing much seems to have transpired other than Ouma tugging on Kiibo’s arms and torso at seemingly random, between happily spinning in circles in the snow while Momota seems caught up in trying to explain to Maki why snow is something to get excited about, both seemingly aware of the other’s actions. 

Kaede smiles slightly at them, though her presence is quickly called out by Iruma. “Oi, that was fast, Bakamatsu! Guess it really was your first time.”

“Doing what? Going to get something?” Kaede asks as she walks over to her. “Anyway, where do you want this?”

Iruma gestures to the bridge. “Just put it so it reaches both sides, that way everyone can get across no problem.”

Kaede nods, and does as instructed. With the sign in place, she warily presses one small foot down on it, testing it for strength in spite of Iruma yelling behind her how nothing will break. It seems stable enough, and she walks across perhaps a touch too quickly. Upon reaching the other side she turns to say, “Seems safe, everyone!”

“‘Course it’s fucking safe,” Iruma says, walking across herself with little concern. “Would I lie to you, Bakamatsu?”

“Hmm, hmm,” says Ouma practically skipping across. “Good question—who would Iruma-chan lie to?”

“Are you really going to complain about other people telling lies?” Maki asks as she makes her own way over the bridge.

“See,” he says. “I only tell nice, gentle lies—happy lies that make everything better, you know?”

“No,” Momota snorts, coming to stand beside him. “Spewing bullshit doesn’t make anything better.”

Ouma tilts his head. “Is that what you really think, Momota-chan? You know, I’ve also always thought that the one person you shouldn’t lie to is yourself, but,” he twirls around again, before moving to skip away, “I guess I don’t know what it’s like to be you!”

“Hey!” Momota barks as he starts chasing after him. “The hell is that supposed to mean!?”

Maki starts running after them without a word other than, “that idiot…” 

Kaede watches the three of them go and can hear Ouma’s giggling and Momota’s shouting until both get abruptly cut off. She blinks. “What just—”

“They hit the world dividing loading screen,” Iruma says. “Sound doesn’t pass through ‘em and shit, which also means each room is soundproof. So if any of you wanna get down and dirty, now is the time to do it, especially since you don’t need protection, and—”

“Okay, okay, we get it,” Shirogane says, signaling her presence now on the other side. 

Beside her Hoshi says, “Probably be best to follow them, huh?”

“I agree,” says Kiibo, finally joining them. “After all, once we reach the church is when we will divide to better explore, correct?”

“You got it,” says Iruma. “Then we can finally get this orgy on the road!”

“Stop talking,” says Hoshi, already walking ahead.

Iruma retreats into her usual sniffling, as she scurries after him, mumbling about how it was just a joke. Kaede just sighs and follows after, Kiibo and Shirogane close behind.

The church is a rather small building that the others appear to already be gathered around, arguing inanely among each other as Kaede arrives, still shaking her head to shrug off the disorienting effects of the loading screen.

Iruma knocks the back of her hand against a familiar card reader on the door of the church. “Alright, now that I’ve given the grand tour, this is where we part ways—the church here’s for threesomes only.”

“I stated earlier that based in Iruma-san’s explanation, it would make most sense to divide into two groups of three—one to search the church, the other basement—and a group of two to search the rest of the mansion,” Kiibo says. 

“Me, Kiibs, and Bakamatsu will take the church,” Iruma says. 

“Huh?” says Kaede. “Why the three of us?”

“I dunno,” Iruma gestures vaguely. “‘Cause we all have hair that sticks up or something, we all don’t suck—you’re creative, figure something out yourself.”

“Well,” Kaede frowns. “I mean, I guess I’m fine with it.”

“I am as well,” Kiibo says. 

Ouma says, “Let’s seeeee,” as he rocks back and forth on his heels. “I wanna go with… my beloved Momota-chan!”

“No,” says Maki.

He pouts. “But I wasn’t talking to you! I was talking to—”

“You were doing nothing other than being a pest,” Maki snaps. “I’ll go with Momota, and—”

“Harumaki,” says Momota. “It’s fine.”

His words catch almost everyone off guard, and a brief silence flickers over the groups before Ouma claps his tiny hands together. “Great! So me and Momota-chan will—”

“I’d like to go, too,” says Hoshi. “And the three of us can check out the basement.”

Ouma tilts his head at him. “Hmm? Hoshi-chan wants to come?”

“Uh,” says Momota. “I think the two of us can handle it. Don’t worry about it, man.”

“What does that mean?” Hoshi asks.

“Yeah,” says Ouma. “Is something wrong, Momota-chan?”

“No,” he says quickly. “I just… wanted to check out the roof, is all.”

Maki frowns, looking hard at him. “That’s what this is about?”

He waves his hands vaguely. “Nothing’s about anything—I just wanna go to the fucking roof, that’s all. It’s—it’s fine, okay?” He glances to Hoshi. “We’ll all just go to the basement—forget I fucking said anything.”

Kaede furrows her brow, very aware something she doesn’t understand is happening right before her eyes as Ouma delightedly claps his hands. “Okay, the three of us will go to the basement together, and Shirogane-chan and Harukawa-chan will explore the rest of the mansion. Oh,” he frowns. “Poor Shirogane-chan… being stuck alone with a murderer…”

“A-Ah, um,” Shirogane stutters. “I-I wasn’t thinking that!”

Maki hasn’t taken her eyes off of Momota. “We can discuss teams again when we get back to the mansion.”

“Sounds good to me!” says Iruma. “Now, c’mon, I’ll escort you guys back to the bridge, since with your intelligence, one of you dumbasses is sure to get lost.”

She cackles as she stomps off, the atmosphere hanging over those following her far too tense for her laughter.

Kaede watches the others disappear through the loading screen with Kiibo. She says, “I’m worried about them.”

“I am as well,” he says. “I know Iruma-san she ensured this program was safe, but…” he shakes his head. “I have a very bad feeling about this. My inner voice is telling me to be extra careful, as well, and the last time it acted that way… I was sabotaged by Tojo-san.”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “I-I didn’t know that.”

The eyes on his avatar droop. “I never told anyone. Perhaps it is illogical, but I do not like dwelling on that incident.”

“No,” says Kaede. “I understand.” 

Kiibo’s eyes suddenly light up in recognition. “Ah, yes, my apologies.”

Kaede frowns, unsure what he’s talking about, but Iruma comes back, wiping her hands together and jittering slightly as she says. “Well, now that that’s taken care of, we can organize this bitch.” She moves past them, quickly swiping her card over the reader. “C’mon—the stupid, magic, whatever clues won’t wait forever!” 

Kaede exchanges a hesitant look with Kiibo, but they both do as instructed and follow her inside. 

The loading screen flickers to life and back out again, and Kaede notes the extremely cluttered inside of the small building, and Iruma standing a few feet from her, hunching her shoulders over something.

She says, “Iruma-san?”

Iruma quickly fidgets on the spot, seeming to shove her ID back into her pocket, before spinning around saying, “Say something, Bakamatsu?”

“Um,” Kaede frowns, shaking her head. “No, I guess we should start looking around, right?”

Kiibo appears behind her, and Kaede can’t help but notice Iruma frown slightly, furrowing her brow as if confused about something. Kiibo seems to notice, saying, “Is something—”

“Nope, nope,” Iruma says. “Now, c’mon, let’s make sure the best team finds this bitch, got it?”

Kaede smiles in exasperation. “Sure.”

Kaede begins to move to search through a pile of assorted boxes, each stuffed to the brim with junk, all too aware that she is likely out of the loop of something very, very bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you probably noticed, things are a bit different in the program world than in canon, as due to its nature this was one of the few things I felt comfortable playing around with a little. And, yes, most changes will be important for the trial, haha. 
> 
> And there should be a victim next chapter, too! So that will be fun.


	22. The Fourth Body Has Been Discovered

The church is absurdly full of boxes, which in turn are absurdly full themselves, and Kaede stops counting the sheer amount of golden Iruma statues she pulls out, lining them up behind her in a tiny army. 

Kiibo seems to be having similar results, though he also remains silent, only pulling mildly concerned—or perhaps mildly disappointed—faces as he removes countless of other seemingly useless objects from his boxes. With little noise other than the shuffling of their respective searches passing through the room, Kiibo finally decides to clear his throat with a forced cough before asking, “Iruma-san? Do you mind if I ask you something?”

She hums from her own place near the front of the church, noticeably less invested in organizing the various piles of objects dumped haphazardly around her. “Yeah,” she says, only half listening to him. “What’s up, Kiibs?”

He frowns. “You’ve mentioned many times that you have the ability to add and remove objects from this world, so why is this place so…” he looks around, searching for the word among the mess surrounding them. “Full?”

Iruma waves a hand dismissively, still seemingly staring at something in front of her. “Extra assets,” she says. “Removing absolutely everything would be an even bigger pain in the ass than setting up all this shit already was.”

“Wait,” Kaede says, gesturing with an Iruma statue in her hand. “But isn’t some of this stuff things you added?”

Iruma huffs. “Programming isn’t that fucking simple, Bakamatsu!” she says, finally shoving something in her pocket and turning to face them. “Especially when you’re dealin’ with a shitty shoe-string program like this one. Crap’s built on top of other crap, and sometimes when you mean to make ten of something you end up with a thousand!”

Kaede furrows her brow. “I don’t really know much about computers, but…” she looks to Kiibo for support. “Is that true?”

“‘Course it’s fucking true!” Iruma says. “Would I fucking lie to you?”

Kaede exchanges another look with Kiibo as he lets out a sigh. “I suppose not—and besides,” he turns back to the boxes in front of him. “Our objective is not to interrogate Iruma-san. It is to find the hint about the outside world.”

Kaede stares after him, recalling what he had said to her earlier. She never took Kiibo as the type to run away from difficult topics, and she can’t help but notice the odd stiffness in his avatar’s movements, as if he were physically carrying his hesitation tight in his shoulders. She looks to him and then to Iruma, deciding to speak for him, “Iruma-san, there’s something else we need to ask you.”

“Yeah?” she says, crossing her arms. “Not like we got all the time in the fucking world, so spit it out—”

“Why did you create this world in the first place?” Kaede asks. “When you first brought it up, you talked about it like it was a way for everyone to escape, but it’s not, and earlier when it was just the three of us, you said you didn’t care about the others, and,” she takes a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. “And this also seems like a lot of work for you to go through if you don’t actually care about everyone.”

“We want to believe the best in you, Iruma-san,” Kiibo chimes in. “I… I want to believe the best in all of my friends, but… you especially, but there are a lot of things I am having trouble overlooking as suspicious.” He bows his head. “Please understand where we are coming from.”

Iruma’s eyes dart between them, and she squirms on the spot, faltering under their scrutiny at an alarming rate. “I just—!” she begins. “I just really…!”

She shakes her head, tugging at her hair, and Kaede hears Kiibo very softly say, “Iruma-san…”

Iruma shouts over him. “I’m just really fucking scared, okay!?” She starts pacing, gesturing wildly as she does so. “Th-This place if fucking hell, and the mastermind is gonna come and fucking kill me—l-like they did to Yumeno!—or they’re gonna t-trick someone’s dumbass, and then _they’ll_ kill me, and,” she presses her hands to her face, her entire tiny avatar trembling as she sinks to her knees, “and every goddamn second in that world is a second I’m likely to fucking die!”

Kiibo approaches her hesitantly, kneeling and placing a supportive hand on her shoulder. “You,” he says, voice barely rising over Iruma’s whimpering. “You just want to be safe… is that why you created this world, Iruma-san?”

She nods. “Fucking… how can either of you trust fucking _anyone?_ ” she says. “Even in here, I don’t want any of those assholes near me. I just… I just _know_ they’re waiting to kill someone.”

Kaede bites her lip, very aware how little she can refute Iruma’s paranoia, extreme as it may be. “Are we the only people you trust?” she asks gently.

“I already said you were!” Iruma shouts, jerking her head up. “I already said that the three of us are the only people we can even think about relying on without being fucked in the ass! But then you said—”

“We refused your plan to cooperate,” Kiibo says, staring at the ground. “I see. You were already planning this world before hand, but you only started in earnest once we rejected your offer.” He shakes his head. “My apologies, Iruma-san. I… I did not know your feelings were this strong, and I should have taken them more seriously.”

Iruma leans on Kiibo to pull herself back up to her feet, mumbling, “don’t apologize—not your fault…”

“So then,” Kaede says. “What is your plan? The three of us just stay away from everyone else?”

“No,” Iruma says, shaking her head. “Much as I’d prefer to keep this to a threesome, I know that’s not fucking possible. Just,” she tosses her hair over her shoulder. “Figured as long as we’re in the program world, I can control shit, and we wouldn’t have to worry about something stabbing a knife in my tits or something.”

“Then the goal is just to stay here as long as possible to protect ourselves,” Kiibo says, frowning. “Is that… is that the only thing?”

“Yeah,” says Kaede. “I mean, I get wanting to stay safe, but this is really temporary, isn’t it? Especially since everyone will probably just leave once we find the secret about our memories or the world or whatever hidden here.”

Iruma looks over both of them, her avatar sweating profusely. “U-Uh, well…”

Kiibo sighs. “Iruma-san, I really do trust you. Please,” he clasps her tiny hands in his. “Please tell us the truth.”

Her entire face starts to glow pink, and her stammering increases as her confidence dissolves. “W-W-Well, th-that’s, um.”

Kaede gives her a distinctly more threatening look than Kiibo’s sympathetic expression, finally prompting Iruma to half shout, “F-Fine! It’s a quarantine, okay!?”

“Quarantine?” Kaede echoes. 

“Yeah!” she says. “They all just stay on their side of the river, and we stay over here, and everything’s fine!”

“You wanted to trap the others here?” Kiibo asks, voice stern. “But wouldn’t they starve?”

Iruma shakes her head rapidly. “N-No! I-I mean I’d let ‘em out eventually after the three of us do some shit to, you know,” she shrugs, “find things, prepare stuff, figure out who the fucking mastermind is—make crap easier for ourselves without worrying about corpses poppin’ up all over the place.”

“But,” Kaede says. “The way to log out is on their side? Aren’t we the ones who are trapped in the program if something happens to the bridge?”

Iruma bites her lip, obviously debating something, though Kiibo gently squeezing her hands saying, “Iruma-san…” seems to be enough to convince her.

“Okay, okay, fine,” she says. “There’s some shit I left out of the grand tour—namely the fact that I can veto if people get to log out.”

“Iruma-san!” Kaede yells. 

She cowers. “E-Everyone can still leave now, though!” she says quickly. “I-I haven’t set it to reject anyone, s-so nothing’s _really_ been decided yet, so…”

“And that’s why you were so upset Tenko-san decided to stay behind,” Kaede says. “I think I get it now.”

“I do as well,” Kiibo says, sighing deeply and letting go of Iruma’s hands.

The gesture causes her to falter further, and Iruma extends a shaking hand to him, “C-C’mon, Kiibs—I wasn’t-I wasn’t gonna do anything bad!”

“I still would like to believe that is the truth, but,” he shakes his head. “I cannot approve of your actions. I suppose… I suppose I am simply disappointed.”

Despite her own frustrations over Iruma’s secrecy, Kaede can’t help but feel a bit sympathetic for the other girl due to just how crushed she looks at his words. 

Kiibo turns his back to them and calmly walks over to the boxes he had been searching through. “I suppose now that that is answered, we should resume our search. The secret of the outside world is likely still worth finding and may still be hidden somewhere around here.”

Iruma’s avatar seems to be trembling slightly, and Kaede lets out a deep sigh as she finds she can’t completely squash all of her compassion. “Iruma-san,” she says. “Here, it’ll be faster if we look together.”

Iruma looks to her weakly before nodding her head, not even bothering with making pretenses of hiding her moping as she turns back to the piles of stuff in front of her. 

Kaede approaches, and Iruma softly mumbles to her, “I was gonna save Kiibs, too, you know.” She looks at the boxes in front of her. “I was always gonna save him…”

Their search becomes far quieter and far more awkward after that, and they search fruitlessly in silence until Kaede decides she can’t take it anymore. 

She darts a glance back at Kiibo before whispering, “You know, I think if you apologize, he’ll forgive you. Even if,” she frowns, “well, even though you made this place as a trap for everyone.”

Iruma scowls. “I know I fucked up, Bakamatsu—what do you want from me?”

Kaede frowns, finding it difficult to ignore the gnawing feeling of irritation of Iruma only seeming to feel guilty due to Kiibo’s reaction rather than the full implications of her plan. “I understand what it’s like to feel paranoid,” Kaede says. “And like you can’t trust anyone, but doing rash things just gets more people hurt.”

Iruma shakes her head. “Bullshit—you’ve always had people fucking flocking around you. I mean,” she empties a box onto the floor with a loud clatter, “yeah Sighara turned out to be a murderer, but he never fucking went after you, so—”

“Hey, Iruma-san,” Kaede cuts her off sharply. “I’m actually trying to help you so could you shut up?”

She drops the box to the ground, wilting in on herself. “I-I-I just meant I—” she shrugs helplessly. “Trustin’ peoples your thing,” Kaede winces at her words, though Iruma doesn’t seem to notice, “and it always works out for you, and—oh!” she snaps her fingers. “I ever fucking tell you I finally got my drone back for horsefucker?”

Kaede blinks. “You mean Ouma-kun?”

“Same difference,” she dismisses with a wave of her hand, turning back to absently sort through the junk piled on the floor. “Point is, thing had been fucking missing since weedhead-dyejob kicked it, and it turns out the little cocksucker just had it piled under all his shit.”

Kaede has very little idea what point Iruma’s trying to make as she says, “I’m glad for you?”

“What I’m tryin’ to say,” Iruma says. “Is people just steal shit from me and try to force me to make crap for ‘em—but you have one talk with someone and suddenly they’re on their knees, you know?”

Kaede frowns. “Iruma-san, I really don’t have as easy a time getting along with people as you think I do.”

“Well, everyone fucking likes you more than me!” she says, voice raising to a shout. “And I don’t get why—I’m smarter, my boobs are better, I make all the shit everyone wants me to—”

“You also insult everyone,” Kaede points out. “Like, almost all the time.”

“Well so does fucking no-tits assassin bitch, and she gets a stupid prince charming trippin’ all over himself, and—”

“Iruma-san,” Kaede says. “Are you jealous?”

Iruma throws her hands in the air. “I don’t know! Fucking—” she cuts herself off, physically turning away from Kaede. “I just wanna get the fuck out of this hell…” and Kaede barely catches her mumble, “finally go somewhere where people fucking appreciate me…”

Kaede isn’t sure how to respond, though as she turns back to her own search, she distinctly catches Kiibo watching out of the corner of her eye. She supposes she can’t blame him due to the sheer volume of their conversation, and when Iruma storms past them, announcing she’s going to look at a few things on the far side of the church, he hesitates for only a moment before approaching Kaede.

His first words are, “Akamatsu-san, was I too hard on Iruma-san earlier?”

“Well,” Kaede says. “I mean, no. I feel bad for her, but she still basically set this world up as a trap and lied to the others.”

“Right,” he says, frowning. “I was in the right. Still…” 

“I don’t think you should apologize, if that’s what you’re getting at,” Kaede says. “But maybe tell her you’re still her friend or something. I think, it was actually Iruma-san, herself, who said that you can still like or admire someone even if they make mistakes.”

Kiibo nods slowly. “She said that about Tojo-san. That our situation forces people to do bad things, but that is not their entire character…”

She offers him a sympathetic smile. “I don’t think she said it quite as eloquently as that, but yeah.”

Kiibo smiles. Then he calls out, “Iruma-san,” and shuffles over to her.

Kaede catches pieces of their conversation, though decides to give the two of them as much privacy as she can as she focuses on her search anew. A few boxes later, and it occurs to her she has no real idea what she’s looking for, though nothing catches her eye as suspicious as most of the boxes are filled with the same repetitive times—statues, mothballs, coats, books that talk repetitively talk about how great Iruma is, and stuff seemingly meant for the beach rather than the snowing landscape surrounding them.

She absently tosses a brightly colored beach ball over her shoulder when she catches Iruma laughing, her previous good mood seemingly restored. 

Kaede allows herself a glance back and sees the two of them only giving searching the church a token effort, but sharing bright smiles. Iruma tosses her hair over her shoulder, saying, “Sooooo what do you think, then Kiibs? After we get out of here, would you wanna go on a hot date with a babe like me?”

Kiibo tilts his head. “I am not sure I understand. I… would not like to, ahem,” his artificial skin begins to burn red, “date someone who is _like_ you, but… just you?”

He begins to stammer out an elaboration, and Kaede smiles as she looks back to see Iruma slack jawed and bright pink. There is quite a bit more she feels the need to sort out with Iruma, though she supposes that can be done in time. For now a relative peace seems to have settled over the three of them, and Kaede makes the choice that finding the secret of the outside world is pretty important. After all, she spares them another glance over her shoulder, and gleams that Kiibo appears to have done the bulk of the work in talking Iruma out of whatever half-baked scheme she had planned. 

In spite of her efforts, however, Kaede finds little of interest. After what she idly assumes must have been the hundredth box, she turns to an equally exhausted Iruma and Kiibo. She sighs, preparing to admit defeat. “Either of you find anything?”

“I have not,” Kiibo answers.

Iruma has both her hands in a box and appears to be frowning hard at something, but mumbles, “Barren as your sex life over here, too, Bakamatsu.”

Kaede rolls her eyes. “ _Anyway_ maybe we should go meet up with the others to see if they found anything.”

“I agree,” Kiibo says. “Perhaps we could search the perimeter first, though I am doubtful there are many other places that could hide…” he frowns. “This would be quite a bit easier if we knew what we were looking for.”

Iruma says, “Okay, okay, that sounds good, but, uh,” she gestures vaguely towards Kaede. “Hey, whale tits, could you grab that surfboard on your way out? There might have been a weird freak accident with the bridge or something earlier…”

Kaede takes a moment to close her eyes and take in and let out a deep breath. She does as she’s instructed anyway, taking the surfboard in her tiny hands. “Hey, Kiibo-kun,” she says approaching the door. “Can you swipe my card for me? It’s just in my backpack, and my hands are a little full.”

He nods. “Of course, if,” he turns to Iruma. “Will the system allow that?”

“Yeah,” she says, swiping her own card. “Shouldn’t be much of a fucking problem.”

Kiibo nods again, sending Kaede a quick affirmative smile before shuffling around her to get her card from her bag. He swipes them both, and Iruma hurries outside first without a word. 

Kaede knows lingering will likely draw suspicion, so she’s quick when she says, “seems like Iruma-san’s happy again.” She gives him a teasing smile. “Did you promise to be her prince charming when we get out of here?”

Kiibo’s face burns. “I, um,” he steps out of the way, pressing his fingers together and staring at the ground. “Please go ahead, Akamatsu-san.”

She laughs. “I’ll help you keep an eye on her, but I don’t think we’ll need to worry much about Iruma-san now.”

“Thank you for your support,” he says, though obviously still embarrassed. 

Kaede smiles again before carefully maneuvering the surfboard horizontally to get in through the door.

The loading screen blinks into existence and back out, and Kaede shakes her head, forgetting how disorienting it had been after spending so long just in the church. Iruma’s standing a few feet down the path, her back turned to her, and her shoulders hunched. At the sound of Kaede’s steps behind her, she seemingly fiddles with something before turning to face her with a sharp frown.

“Something wrong?” Kaede asks. 

“Nah,” Iruma says. “Just thought something was kinda weird.”

Kiibo appears suddenly, and Iruma furrows her brow. As he approaches, he repeats, “Iruma-san, is something wron—”

“No, no, nothing,” she says. “I was just, uh,” she glances around, and her eyes worryingly settle on Kaede. “I was just tellin’ Bakamatsu all about our hot date, that’s all.”

Though it’s an obvious lie, Kaede finds it amusing and harmless enough to play along. “I think it’s really sweet,” she says, causing Kiibo to blush even harder. “You know, Shirogane-san also thinks you two are really cute together—”

“No shit,” Iruma says. “Shittygane wants up to hook up, too?”

“Well,” Kaede says. “She didn’t exactly say that, but—”

Kiibo moves forward to take the surfboard from Kaede’s hands. “Perhaps I will go on ahead then,” he says quickly. “You two can search the perimeter of the church, and, ahem, discuss whatever you like. I will meet you at the mansion.”

Kaede laughs, giving up the surfboard easily enough. “Aw, are you sure you don’t want to walk around with Iruma-san?”

“Hey, Bakamatsu,” Iruma snorts. “Give ‘im a break. Lesser men have overheated at one sight of my hot—”

“I will see the two of you later then!” he says, hurriedly shuffling off.

Kaede can’t help but smile as she watches him go before finally disappearing through the loading zone. With him safely past the soundproof barrier, she decides to pose the same question she had to Kiibo only moments earlier, “So I take it the two of you made up?”

Iruma shrugs. “Well, yeah.” She kicks at a bit of snow and starts walking forward to begin their search of the church’s perimeter, Kaede walking alongside her. “I mean, Kiibs did what he always fucking does—he tells me everything’ll be fine and we’re safe together and he’s my friend and shit.”

“You don’t seem happy about that,” Kaede observes. 

“Like fuck I’m not happy,” Iruma says. “I’m fucking ecstatic, just,” she screws up her face. “He’s too fucking nice.”

“And that’s bad?” Kaede says.

“No,” Iruma says, staring hard at the ground. “It’s not…”

There’s clearly something weighing on Iruma’s mind, though she remains tightlipped for the rest of their walk around the church. Kaede almost idly suggests they take another lap to double check for anything they missed, and Iruma shrugs, agreeing easily enough. 

The crunch through the snow even as their tiny feet leave no footprints, and Iruma says, “Hey—Sluthar—Saihara was really nice to you and shit, right?”

Kaede furrows her brow. “He was.”

Iruma looks forward. “Figured.”

Kaede gives her another hard look, trying to piece what could possibly go in the other girl’s head from the simplified expression on her avatar’s face. But far too little is portrayed for Kaede to string anything together.

The two continue their march in the snow, and though Kaede catches Iruma occasionally attempting to secretly fiddle with something in her pocket, she remains silent, simply searching for whatever secret drove them to the virtual world in the first place.

-

In the computer room, Tenko sits in her chair with her legs folded up against her chest, resting her chin atop her knees. The arguing from outside the door floats in on occasion before returning to hushed voices that Tenko can’t make out anything but a few scattered words from. Their conversation—heated as it is—is currently in one of those quiet lulls, and Tenko lets her eyes drift over everyone still plugged into the program.

A voice gnawing in the back of her head reminds her that they’ve been in the simulation for a really long time. It was before the morning announcement that they all entered, and the many digital computer clocks around the room tell her it’s approaching evening. 

Again, she thinks how everyone has been in for so long. Well—her eyes drift back to the ajar door—not everyone. Perhaps it’s the quiet yet burning conversation just out of range of her hearing or sitting alone for as long as she has, but Tenko’s nerves are starting to fray at the seems, and she stands, stretching her back to run through some simple stretches again.

Tenko moves slowly, her light steps barely making any noise over the soft beeps from the computers, occasional whirring of fans, and whatever hissed discussion is happening just outside the room. She’s bent in half to stretch down to her toes when a sudden clanking noise echoes behind her. 

She whips around, and footsteps echo behind her, altered as well by the odd sound. The two enter from outside, and Tenko hears, “Hey, what was that—”

Then she hears a familiar chime and, “A body has been discovered!”

They stand, absolutely stunned for a second as the message plays idly in the background. Through the roaring in her head, Tenko finds a single point of clarity, and she shouts, “Check everyone’s pulses!” 

Favoritism causes her to rush to Kaede’s side first, and she echos a deep sigh of relief at quickly confirming the other girl is alive. They move, checking the others one by one, the subtle, creeping dread increasing with each person confirmed to still be breathing. 

And everyone is. For a second, Tenko stands, furrowing her brow in pure confusion before the only possible solution strikes her all at once. 

The sheer horror of the situation slows her steps, but she manages to walk across the room and slowly lift the visor off of Kiibo’s face. There is no reaction. His eyes remain closed, and his body sits slightly collapsed in his chair. There is no pulse or breath or heartbeat to check, but there is absolutely no denying the body before Tenko’s eyes. 

She rushes back to her empty chair, offering only the hurried explanation of, “Tenko needs to tell the others!” as she shoves the wires into her headset. It’s over her eyes, and she’s flipping the switch before a single word can be said against her actions.

-

Kaede watches Iruma wobble across the makeshift bridge Kiibo had set up earlier, the surfboard standing strong under her weight. It still shifts slightly from side to side, and Iruma holds her hands out to help her balance as she takes the last few steps to the outstretched dock on the other side. 

“Alright,” Kaede says. “Now we just need to head to the mansion, and…” she cuts herself off, noticing Iruma staring fixatedly as something behind her.

Kaede turns and starts in surprise at seeing a tiny version of Tenko rushing up to them, the bow on the back of her head almost comically large compared to the rest of her body.

“Kaede-san! Iruma-san!” Tenko calls out, her feet moving quickly under her. “Where are the others!? Tenko can’t find them!”

“‘Can’t find?’” Kaede echoes. “They’re all—” she shakes her head. “Tenko-san, why are you here?”

“Get lonely, Chabashitra?” Iruma asks. 

Tenko finally catches up to them, and shakes her head, her pigtails whipping back and forth around her. “No! It’s an emergency! Tenko was just sitting in the computer room when—”

Kaede feels herself pale. “There’s been another murder, hasn’t there?”

She nods quickly. “Yes! The body announcement suddenly went off, and, and, uh…”

“Well, fucking spit it out already!” Iruma says. “You tryin’ to keep us from clima—”

“It’s Kiibo-san,” Tenko says. “His body suddenly—”

“WHAT!?” Iruma screams.

“His body just seemed to—”

“ _What?_ This can’t—!” Iruma shakes her head wildly, the features of her avatar seem incapable of fully expressing her horror, but Kaede begins to see what she thinks are tears already flickering in her virtual eyes as she physically pushes past Tenko, running at full speed back towards the main house, chanting, “no, no, no, no, no,” at rapid fire to herself.

Tenko’s turns to stare after her, while Kaede takes a moment to process her sheer shock. “How… how could… we were together almost the whole time…” she shakes her head. “Tenko-san, did anything happen on your side?”

“Tenko doesn’t know very much about computers,” she says quickly. “But she didn’t see anything wrong with him. Harukawa-san and Momota-san also didn’t seem to notice anything—”

“Wait,” Kaede says, doing a double take. “Kaito and Harukawa-san were with you?”

She nods. “They had both logged out of the program—the three of us were together when the body announcement went off.”

Kaede blinks again. “Did—did they say why they were—” she shakes her head. “Tell me on the way—we need to find the others and get out of here.”

“Okay,” Tenko says, and they start running back to the mansion. Hey voice is a touch unsteady as she runs, but Tenko manages to say, “Tenko didn’t see anyone else on her way here—do you know where the others are Kaede-san?”

“They should just be in the mansion, and the two of us can—” Kaede cuts herself as the sudden memory of her handing her card to Kiibo flashes into her head. “Crap—this might be bad.”

“What is?” Tenko asks.

“I can’t get back into the mansion,” Kaede answers. “I gave Kiibo-kun my ID card?”

They’re close enough to the mansion now, and Tenko slows her pace, looking at her in confusion. “ID card?”

“Yeah, everyone has ID cards they need to use to get from place to—” Kaede skids to a stop as the deeper meaning behind Tenko’s words catch up to her. “Wait. How did you get here?”

Tenko frowns. “Tenko appeared in a strange lounge type place, looked around for the others, and then went outside.” She notices the panic beginning to settle over Kaede’s face, and she quickly adds, “There, were also, um, weird black spaces that happened whenever Tenko went through a door way, but—”

“Check your pockets,” Kaede says.

Tenko looks at her warily but does as instructed. She manages to a pull a similar ID card to the ones Kaede had seen everyone else use out of her pocket and blinks at it a few times. Her obvious confusion prompts Kaede to say, “You didn’t use that on the card readers, did you?”

“There are card readers?” Tenko asks.

Kaede can’t help but curse under her breath. “Shit,” she shakes her head and starts walking towards the mansion again. “Tenko-san, keep this between us okay—if anyone asks, say you used the card on,” they approach the front doors, and Kaede gestures towards the apparently superfluous card reader, “that thing okay?”

Tenko nods but furrows her brow in concern. “Tenko will, but, Kaede-san, is something wrong?”

“Yes,” Kaede says. “I think there’s a lot about this world that we still don’t know, and now there’s been a murder.” She shakes her head. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”

Tenko bites her lip, shifting on the spot. “Tenko is sure that that is all very important, Kaede-san, but—”

“You’re right,” she says. “We need to get everyone, and… and got to Kiibo-kun’s…” the rush she had felt earlier—even if it was born from panic—suddenly vanishes. She had spoken with Kiibo not half an hour ago—the idea that he’s suddenly gone doesn’t even seem real, and Kaede doesn’t even feel grief but instead an aching, hollow pit. “We need to go to him,” she decides on.

They enter the mansion one at a time at Kaede’s insistence, even as she wonders just how unnecessary that action might be. Kaede blinks to clear her vision, and a blue blob appears at the end of the hallway. She blinks a bit more and identifies it as Shirogane at roughly the same time Tenko calls out, “Shirogane-san!” and starts to run over to her.

Shirogane blinks at them. “Chabashira-san?” she asks. “What are you doing here—did something…” she suddenly looks down at the ground. “Oh no. Oh no, oh no.”

Kaede hurries over to them. “Shirogane-san, do you know what happened?”

She seems a bit more on edge that usual as she shakes her head. “Not the exact details, but,” she bites her lip. “Something happened to Kiibo-kun, didn’t it?”

“How did you know?” Tenko asks.

“I went to the basement with him, and, well—actually,” she shakes her head. “I’ll tell you later—Ouma-kun and Hoshi-kun are probably wondering where I am.”

“Are they up ahead?” Kaede asks.

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “We, um, we were all in the same area, and then Ouma-kun said he heard something weird, so we all went upstairs and saw Iruma-san running by in a panic, and, well, she would plainly only do something like that if—”

“But weren’t you supposed to be up here with Harukawa-san?” Kaede asks, a bit too aggressively.

Shirogane sweats. “Sh-She left! S-So I went down to the basement with Kiibo-kun, and, um…”

Kaede wants to yell another question at her, but Tenko places a hand on her shoulder as she firmly says, “We need to get out of here—we can talk with Shirogane-san later.”

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, desperately trying to process just how things fell apart as she stammers, “R-Right—sorry, Shirogane-san.”

Shirogane nods weakly, muttering to herself, “Poor, Kiibo-kun… why him?” as she swipes her card, Tenko and Kaede watching the action perhaps a bit too intensely. She walks through the door, leaving the two of them to briefly stare at each other.

Kaede can’t help but let out a shaking breath as she tries to piece together what’s in front of her. Aloud she says, “Did _anyone_ do what they were supposed to?”

“Um, Kaede-san,” Tenko says again.

“Right,” she answers. “You go first—if the others ask for any reason, just tell them I have my card, okay?”

Tenko nods, still obviously concerned as she hesitatingly moves her card over the reader, staring questioningly at it as she does so. Kaede waits a few seconds, squeezing her hands into fists and preparing to take the steps that will lead her to another one of her friend’s bodies. 

And she can’t help but think again, _I was just talking to him_.

She squares her shoulders and steps through the doorway. The darkness engulfs her, and then fades back out again. 

In the room before her, she catches the last images of Shirogane’s form being engulfed in light in front of the phone, and hears Ouma nonchalantly explaining to Tenko how logging out works. He stops abruptly, and looks around her towards Kaede. “Hoshi-chan already logged out, so it’s just the three of us left. And Kiibo, too, I guess.”

Kaede barely resists the urge to slap him across the face. 

“Oh, also, Akamastu-chan, a moment of your time,” Ouma says, flashing her a grin.

Tenko immediately begins to pull a face, but Kaede swiftly walks over to place a hand on her arm. “It’s alright, Tenko-san. You go ahead. I can handle this.”

She frowns but relents. “If you’re sure,” she walks to the phone, squinting at it suspiciously as she says “Chabashira Tenko.” 

Tenko’s avatar disappears from the world in a flash of light, and Kaede is left alone with Ouma. “Whatever you’re about to say,” she says. “Make it quick—we need to—”

“Don’t worry about that,” he says, folding his hands behind his head. “To tell the truth, I think we all learned a little something from this.”

“What are you talking about?” she hisses. “If you’re about to say something about Kiibo-kun not counting as a victim because he’s a robot—”

“No,” Ouma says. “Nothing like that. Just,” he tilts his head, seeming to think for a moment how to phrase his next words, “I think I’m just thinking about the past. Seems like it finally caught up with us is all.”

“And that means…?” Kaede prompts, quickly loosing patience. 

“It means,” he hums. “It means if I were you, I would trust as many people as you did back when Amami-chan died.” He smiles brightly. “That’s all.”

Kaede narrows her eyes. “You know what happened, don’t you?”

Ouma skips over to the phone. “Would you believe me if I said I did?”

Kaede knows this routine far too well, but this time, she has evidence to help her. “I already know that you lied earlier. Shirogane-san told me that you said you heard Iruma-san from the basement, and that’s impossible be—”

“—Because the loading screens make every room soundproof,” Ouma finishes. “That’s right. I mean, there’s always a chance Shirogane-chan was lying, but—”

“Ouma-kun,” she says sharply. “I’m not going to play games with you about this, and if you had any part in what happened to Kiibo-kun, then, then—” she shakes her head, physically feeling the anger boiling up inside, and she snaps, “Then I hope you’re really, really, really _fucking_ proud of yourself. I hope you’re proud of everyone you’ve hurt, and I hope that you get absolutely everything you wanted out of this game.”

Ouma stares at her for a moment, and then says with almost no emotion, “Ouma Kokichi,” and he vanishes in a beam of light.

Kaede glares at the spot where he was standing, a tiny flickering voice in the back of her mind wonders if she went too far, but Kaede quiets it with a shake of her head. She approaches the phone, picking it up with a shaking hand, knowing fully well what will start when she gets to the other side. “Akamatsu Kaede.”

The ring of light appears around her feet, and with that, the program world is just as dead as when they entered it.

-

The world fades back to black, and Kaede blinks her eyes for a few seconds, taking in the new darkness before dully realizing it’s simply the turned off headset resting over her face. Sound begins to filter back into her world—there’s some talking in hushed whispers, but rising above them is Iruma’s distinct hurried mumbling, broken only by cracks in her choked voice.

Kaede pulls her headset off, and blinks a few more times to clear her vision. The sight of Iruma frantically moving around Kiibo’s still body, haphazardly bringing her arm up to wipe her tears with the back of her hand before returning to her skittering unfolds in Kaede’s vision before anything else. Everything else seems irrelevant anyway.

She hears movement nearby, and turns her head to notice Tenko standing beside her, staring at Iruma with the deepest sympathy in her eyes. 

Kaede allows herself to follow her gaze again, and there’s an awkward stillness in the room as if saying anything to interrupt Iruma’s half sobbed whispers would be disrespectful. Kaede makes out part of one as, “c’mon, c’mon, fuck, c’mon—Kiibs—c’mon, you-you have to be fine—you have to…” and forces herself to tune out, not wanting to invade Iruma’s privacy even as everyone openly stares at her.

Everyone is quiet, even Ouma who sits in his chair, absently swinging his short legs. Kaede takes a deep breath and stands. She takes a step towards Iruma, saying, “Iruma-san, he—”

Iruma suddenly jolts at her words, screaming “I can fix him!” With her eyes still locked on Kiibo’s body she repeats again, “I can—I—” she turns to the others, a near desperate expression on her face. “Someone—help me carry him to my lab—I can’t do it by myself!”

The others take perhaps a second too long to answer, and Iruma jerks back to Kiibo’s body, tugging at his arm, biting out, “F-Fine! Then I _will_ do it m-myself!”

Maki walks over, brushing Iruma aside with a bump of her shoulder. Kaede’s about to scold her for such an action when Maki casually bends Kiibo’s body at the waist slightly before hauling him up and over her shoulders. Kaede stutters, “H-Harukawa-san?”

Momota says, “Harumaki, isn’t Kiibo like really fucking heav—”

She shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s not that bad. Iruma,” she turns to the other girl. “Open doors for me on the way there.”

Iruma sputters out of her state of shock and sprints to the doors of the computer room, yanking them open. Maki heads to the doors at a casual stroll, pausing only briefly to send a pointed look to Momota that he returns. Everyone just stands in silence, letting only Maki’s footsteps carry through the room. 

The doors finally swinging shut when the two girls leave breaks the spell as Ouma says, “So, I suppose this is the really dangerous part.”

“What do you mean?” Shirogane asks hesitantly. “Y-You mean investigating so we can guess the culprit right?”

“No,” says Hoshi suddenly, his deep voice startling Kaede. “He’s talking about what happened last time.” His eyes slide over to Ouma. “That right?”

Ouma nods. “Mhmm,” he looks at his shoes, absently kicking the bottom of his chair as he swings his legs. “Now’s the time when anyone can kill anyone—which means things are super dangerous especially for me, right no—”

“No,” Momota says sharply, his sudden, passionate outburst also surprising Kaede. “No, that’s not…” he looks to the ground, and Kaede squints as she inspects him. Something about him seems off. Her first thought is that his bright confidence seems to missing, but then he slams his fists together, loudly announcing. “That’s not gonna fucking happen.”

“And you can be sure about that?” Hoshi says. 

Shirogane begins saying, “I don’t think anyone here would go after—”

“I’m going to protect you,” Momota announces, staring directly at Ouma.

Ouma abruptly stops swinging his legs, and the statement is out of place enough to make Kaede says, “ _What!? _”__

__Momota seems to suddenly become aware of everyone staring at him in near shock, and he barely hides the falter in his bravado, saying, “I mean—I’m also gonna fucking make sure he doesn’t screw any shit up.”_ _

__“How are you planning to do that Momota-san?” Tenko asks quizzically._ _

__“I’d like to know that, too,” Ouma hums._ _

__Kaede asks, “ _Why_ are you planning to do that?”_ _

__Momota throws his hands in the air. “Because he fucked with the last case—I don’t know!”_ _

__“That’s not an answer,” Hoshi says coolly._ _

__“Do, um,” Shirogane stutters. “Do you really think the mastermind is going to go after Ouma-kun?”_ _

__Momota glances around the room before staring hard at Ouma, likely attempting to signal the smaller boy to give him an answer. Ouma remains quiet, staring up at him evenly. Momota lets out a sigh, “I’m just… I just really have to do this.”_ _

__Kaede looks between them, attempting to possible figure out what’s happening. Under the roar of her thoughts, Tenko asks, “Do you have something you need to talk to Ouma-san about?”_ _

__“If you do, do it here,” Hoshi says, not even hiding the challenge in his voice. “I’m sure we’d all like to hear it.”_ _

__A tense silence settles over them, one which it seems Momota has no response for. Ouma rescues him then. “Geeze, Momota-chan,” he says, hopping to his feet. “If you want to spend time alone with me that badly, you could have just told me.” He folds his hands behind his head, walking over to him as if the other boy’s behavior wasn’t bizarre enough to make Kaede’s head hurt. “I don’t really like big public displays anyway, you know. I think I’d prefer to keep things just between us.”_ _

__Momota narrows his eyes at Ouma’s words, and Kaede is all too aware that she is missing whatever silent conversation is happening between them. And Momota doesn’t protest, merely shaking his head before looking back to the others. “We’ll just… fucking stay in my room until the investigation is over or something—too risky with the,” he gestures vaguely, “bodies in two places crap.”_ _

__“Neither of you are going to investigate?” Tenko asks._ _

__“I don’t think they need to,” Kaede answers, narrowing her eyes at Ouma. “Or at least, one of them doesn’t.”_ _

__Ouma returns her glare with a bland expression. Then his normal, cheerful smile appears back on his face, and he practically starts bouncing around Momota, asking, “So are you gonna play with me for the whole investigation, Momota-chan?”_ _

__Momota lets out another deep sigh. “I guess. Come on,” he glances to Kaede, almost physically unable to hide the guilt in his expression, “sorry I’m not gonna fucking help this time either, but… this is important.”_ _

__Tenko takes a step toward them. “Why is this important?” she asks, voice pleading. “Momota-san, why did you log out of the program earlier, and why are you saying someone’s going to hurt Ouma-san, and why are you hiding secrets from everyone?” She shakes her head. “The last person who acted like you did was Yumeno-san, you know that, right?” He doesn’t answer, and Tenko’s voice spikes, “Right!?”_ _

__He doesn’t yell back at her, and that’s probably what concerns Kaede most of all. Instead, Momota directs his eyes somewhere to the side of Tenko’s, muttering, “I’m really fucking sorry.”_ _

__He starts walking away then, Ouma happily skipping at his side as if nothing had happened._ _

__Tenko’s hands curl into fists, and as soon as the doors close, she shakes her head. “Everyone’s hiding something,” she says. “Everyone is keeping secrets, and Tenko knows…”_ _

__A few feet away, Hoshi sighs. “This isn’t about to end well, no.”_ _

__Shirogane presses her hands to her heart. “We need to focus on the investigation right now, though, right? Oh, but poor Kiibo-kun… why would anyone go after him?” She takes her glasses off with one hand for a moment to brush away the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes. “I just don’t understand why this would happen to him…”_ _

__Kaede can’t help but quirk an eyebrow at her words. “Were you two close, Shirogane-san?”_ _

__“Yes, no, maybe,” she answers vaguely. “I just… I just don’t understand why something like this would happen to someone who was so nice…”_ _

__“Think we’ve all been wondering that for a while,” Hoshi says. He looks to the chair Kiibo had been sitting in. “So, just the four of us then.”_ _

__Kaede glances around them. “I guess—wait,” just out of the very corner of her hearing, she registers a soft sniffling sound coming from the far corner of the room. With great hesitation, and Tenko walking behind her, ready to attack whatever might be making the sound, Kaede approaches._ _

__She comes to a desk, and peeks under it to see Monotaro, hiding and sobbing into his scarf. “Daddy…”_ _

__Kaede just shakes her head as she straightens, looking back to the others. “Never mind, it’s nothing.”_ _

__“That so,” Hoshi says. “Then I suppose we have to go through everything one last time.”_ _

__“‘Last time?’” Kaede echoes._ _

__Hoshi shrugs. “Never mind,” he answers, parroting her words from only seconds ago. “It’s nothing.”_ _

__Kaede watches him wander back over to Kiibo’s chair, then she hears Shirogane call out in surprise, likely having found something important, and Kaede takes a moment to close her eyes, internally questioning just how much worse things are going to get._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact! Kiibo was meant to die this chapter from the very beginning, but in my earliest conceptions (before I had the details planned) he was going to somehow be an accidental culprit like Nanami, which is an idea I still like quite a bit. Also, yes, Kiibo's death does mean I have a new special plan for endgame. ; )
> 
> And this fic has over 600 kudos, which is absolutely amazing, and I just want to thank everyone! And V3's English release is right around the corner, so that's exciting, too!


	23. Investigation III

There’s a mysterious puddle on the floor. Kaede finds herself crouched down next to it after Shirogane had sounded her shock at finding such a thing near the chair where she had been sitting. Though she focuses her attention on Shirogane as she begins to talk, Kaede keeps a tentative eye on Hoshi, who seems to be inspecting Kiibo’s headset, and Tenko, who’s on her hands and knees a few feet away from them in an attempt to find whatever the source of the strange liquid might be.

“To speak plainly,” Shirogane says. “I feel like I would have noticed this if it had been here when I logged into the program world for the first time.”

“That makes sense,” Kaede says. “So,” she reaches out to touch the chair. “You were sitting here, and you wouldn’t happen to remember who was sitting beside you?”

“Um, if I recall,” she says. “Hoshi-kun was on one side, and I think Iruma-san was on the other.” She grimaces. “Actually Iruma-san was definitely on the other. She, um, she spits a lot when she talks, and I remember having to clean some off my glasses now that I think about it.”

“So,” Kaede says. “Not Kiibo-kun?”

Shirogane shakes her head. “No, I’m afraid not. So, maybe this isn’t related, even if it is plainly suspicious.”

“You’re right,” she says. “I don’t think we should ignore it since it is so odd.” She absently starts to reach forward towards the puddle, “but I just wonder how it—”

“Kaede-san!” Tenko calls out suddenly. “Don’t touch it!”

Kaede retracts her hand immediately, looking up to see Tenko scrambling towards her. “What’s the matter?” Kaede asks. “Is it maybe battery acid or something?”

“Does Kiibo-kun have battery acid?” Shirogane asks absently. 

“T-Tenko wouldn’t know the answer to that,” she says quickly. “But she does know that that liquid is poison.”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “Poison?”

Shirogane gasps. “H-How can you be sure?”

Tenko points to direct their attention to a few pieces of broken glass shining in the dim lighting a couple of feet away from the back of the chairs. Kaede furrows her brow as she approaches it, careful not to touch the puddle leaking on the floor. As she does so, Tenko explains, “Tenko found glass shards over there, and there was part of a label on one that said it was poison…”

Shirogane scrambles away from the puddle. “C-Can it seep through the skin?” she suddenly clasps her hands over her mouth. “W-What about inhaling? Have we breathed in too much already!?”

“Um, let me see,” Kaede says, now kneeling in front of the remains of what she assumes was a glass bottle. Gingerly, she reaches out to slightly shift the shard of glass with part of the still reasonably intact label on it towards her. Other than being slightly damp, it appears whatever broke the bottle didn’t tear the label, and Kaede ponders this as she reads aloud, “—extremely potent… a single drop can be lethal, however, it must be directly administered orally to take effect.”

“O-Oh, um,” Shirogane slowly brings her hands down. “So then—”

“There’s no need to panic,” Hoshi says dully from his spot by Kiibo’s chair, though seemingly uninterested in their conversation as he continues to fiddle with the headset. “Also better reason for saying the poison is pointless—the victim’s a robot.”

“Which means the real question is,” Kaede frowns at it. “Why would something like this be here?”

“Um,” Tenko says. “Though Tenko assumes it is impossible Kiibo-san’s cause of death is poison… what did kill him?”

Kaede sighs as she stands, brushing herself off as she does so. “I suppose we have to rely on the Monokuma File and maybe Iruma-san if… she ends up performing an autopsy.”

“How cruel…” Shirogane says, hugging herself. “A mechanic being forced to analyze the body of their dead robot friend—the only thing that could make that situation worse is if they were starving to death or something…”

Kaede furrows her brow, unsure how to respond. “I guess? Anyway,” she moves to pull her monopad from her backpack. “Let’s see what information we do have.”

She checks for a moment to ensure the others are doing the same before turning back to her screen alight with the information that Kiibo, the Ultimate Robot, is dead. The diagram of his body is unhelpful, listing only that he suffered a major malfunction of unknown origin, though similar to that of a human going into shock. His time of death was six-twenty in the evening, and there are no signs of external damage. 

Kaede takes a deep breath, uncomfortable with how familiar this process has become. “Tenko-san,” she says, starting the other girl out of her own reading. “You discovered Kiibo-kun—was there anything strange about his body or anything else for that matter?”

Tenko sighs. “Well, the only thing that was suspicious to Tenko at the time was the fact that Momota-san and Harukawa-san were there.”

“Huh,” says Hoshi. “So that’s what happened to him.”

“Ah!” Shirogane says. “That’s right! Hoshi-kun, you and Momota-kun were investigating together.”

“And you were investigating with Harukawa,” he replies evenly.

“A-Ah, um,” Shirogane says. “Well, that’s…”

Kaede turns to him, opting to let Shirogane’s stuttering slide for now. “Hoshi-kun, do you know something?”

Hoshi shrugs. “Know he was a pain to search with. He also made up some dumb excuse to wander around alone with Ouma for awhile, though I guess his plan was to ditch him, too, apparently.”

“What do you mean?” Kaede asks, unable to keep the concern out of her voice.

“Can’t say I know what happened between them,” Hoshi says. “But after I searched by myself for a while, I came back to find that Ouma was by himself, and the room they had wandered off to was a mess.”

“So he was just gone?” Shirogane asks. “I guess it’s a good thing Kiibo-kun and I came down to the basement, otherwise you two wouldn’t have been able to leave. Actually,” she frowns. “How did Momota-kun leave by himself?”

Kaede knows the answer and finds herself infinitely thankful at Tenko quickly saying, “If it matters, when Momota-san woke back up, he seemed really confused.” She fidgets nervously, “Um, Tenko had also been watching the clocks a lot since she was alone for… a long time, and Tenko remembers it was about five-forty when he started panicking.”

“‘Panicking?’” Kaede echoes.

Tenko nods. “He started thrashing around a lot when he first woke up and seemed very insistent about logging back in.”

“But he didn’t,” says Hoshi. “There a reason for that?”

“Well,” Tenko frowns. “Tenko tried to help him, but then,” she bites her lip. “Harukawa-san suddenly logged out, too.”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “It was at the same time?”

“Maybe they coordinated then,” Hoshi says. “They’d have had to have done it before we split up though… and,” he pulls at his hat, “personally, Momota doesn’t strike me as a particularly good actor—doubt he could trick someone like Chabashira, who actually knows him.”

“That is true,” Tenko says hesitantly. “Tenko,” she sighs, “Tenko knows she stayed behind because we can’t trust anyone, but she also really wants to believe that Momota-san wasn’t lying… even if he’s been acting strangely ever since he did log out.”

Kaede offers her a sympathetic smile. “Well, he might be our friend,” she says. “But he’s still an awful boy.”

Tenko returns her smile. “He is.”

“Also,” Kaede says. “We can get his side of the story later, too, but I’m less sure Harukawa-san is going to be willing to just say what she was doing, even if she’s not the culprit.”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Maybe I can help a little? Since, well, we were plainly supposed to be exploring together.”

“That’s right,” Hoshi says. “So how did that go wrong?”

Shirogane flinches slightly at his words. “Well, we looked around the main house together for a while, but we didn’t find anything, and then Harukawa-san told me to swipe my card to leave because she wanted to check the map in the main hall again, though I guess that was a lie now…”

“So you did it?” Kaede asks. “And then she just left?”

She nods. “That’s right. As soon as we got back into the main hall, she just walked away without another word and left to go to the salon. I wasn’t sure if I should follow her or not since we all agreed to search together, but I couldn’t get into the basement by myself, and Iruma-san knocked the bridge down, so—”

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Kaede says, pressing a hand to her forehead. “She said it ‘was an accident’ or something—so that’s what happened.”

“But,” Tenko says. “Tenko saw you and Iruma-san crossing a bridge?”

“We had to use a makeshift one,” Kaede answers. “We actually just ended up using a surfboard in the church—nothing special. In fact, I don’t really know what Iruma-san’s plan to get us back to the other side was.”

“Better question is why she stranded the three of you in the first place,” Hoshi says. “But the murder happened after the two sides were connected again—so I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Tenko suddenly perks up. “Oh, also, if Tenko understands correctly, Iruma-san and Kaede-san were together the whole time, right? Does that mean they both have to be innocent?”

“Actually,” Hoshi says, letting out a deep sigh. “That’s a good point—guess they are.” He looks up to Kaede. “Congratulations, Akamatsu—got an alibi again.”

She frowns. His words strike a distinctly hostile chord to her, yet Kaede finds herself at a loss for why he would feel that way. Part of her quickly questions if he managed to figure out that she lied about her alibi in the last trial, though how he would know that and _why_ he would hold a grudge over that baffles her into silence. 

“Uh,” Tenko says. “Hoshi-san, you, Ouma-san, and Shirogane-san were also together in the virtual world when Kiibo-san was killed, correct?”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “I mean, I was a little ways away from them, but if anyone was trying to attack Kiibo-kun, I definitely would have heard.”

“I assume that goes both ways, too,” Kaede says. “You would have heard if Ouma-kun or Hoshi-kun did anything suspicious, and—and, wait,” she frowns before turning to Tenko. “Tenko-san, you were here with Momota-san and Harukawa-san, so does that mean everyone has an alibi?”

“Huh,” says Hoshi, an odd look flittering across his face before he turns away from them. Over his shoulder he says, “Maybe it was suicide then.”

Kaede blinks. Behind her, Shirogane gasps, bringing her hands to her mouth as she stutters, “S-Suicide? B-But why would Kiibo-kun— _how_ could he do that with the laws of robotics?”

“‘Laws of robotics?’” Kaede repeats. “What are those?”

“Tenko has never heard of those either,” she chimes in. “Was Kiibo-san bound by them?”

“Ah, well,” Shirogane says, waving a hand. “He never talked about them, but the three laws of robotics are that, first, a robot can never hurt a human, second, a robot must protect its own existence, and, third, a robot must do whatever a human tells it as long as it doesn’t conflict with the first two laws.”

Kaede furrows her brow, racking her brain to try to match Kiibo’s behavior with Shirogane’s words. “I feel like… Kiibo-kun ignored a lot of what he was told to do—mostly because Ouma-kun or Iruma-san would tell him ridiculous things.”

Shirogane shakes her head. “That last one is less important—my main point is that I just don’t think Kiibo-kun would commit suicide. It’s not in his nature.”

“Because he’s a robot?” Kaede asks. “Is that your argument?”

“Well, it’s certainly a possibility!” Shirogane insists. “Either way, I plainly can’t believe Kiibo-kun would abruptly kill himself with no reason.”

“Maybe he had a reason,” Hoshi says, still turned away from them. “Maybe he found what we were looking for.”

He likely senses Kaede’s incoming question, and waves his hand dismissively. “Sorry—forget it. I’m saying weird things.”

Kaede doesn’t buy his excuse for a second, even as Shirogane innocently asks, “Oh, Hoshi-kun, are you in mourning then? I didn’t know you and Kiibo-kun were close.”

Hoshi ignores her question, simply saying, “I said forget it. Anyway,” he lets out a sigh. “We should log back into the program or something, right?”

“Yeah,” says Kaede. “Maybe Kiibo-kun’s avatar can tell us something—oh,” she turns to Tenko. “There’s actually one thing I want to ask you first, Tenko-san. What was Harukawa-san like when she logged out of the program? Was she acting strangely?”

Tenko frowns for a moment, thinking on the question. “Harukawa-san…” she begins. “The entire situation was strange, so Tenko doesn’t know if she noticed anything in particular… she,” Tenko moves to stand in front of Maki’s chair, as if ready to recreate the scene. “She seemed… surprised when she noticed Tenko and Momota-san, and he was surprised to see her as well.”

“Did either of them say anything about it?” Kaede prompts.

“Not in front of Tenko,” she says. “Tenko assumes Momota-san decided talking with Harukawa-san was more important, since he gave up trying to log back in. Then,” she turns to look towards the doors. “They whispered for a while and went outside to talk.”

“They didn’t want you hearing their conversation…” Kaede says more to herself than anyone else. “Why is Kaito acting so weird…”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says, fidgeting on the spot. “You don’t think Momota-san’s…”

Neither of them can say, and Kaede quickly counters with, “I think we should investigate. We’ll probably find something that will really show us what’s going on.” Internally, she adds _I hope_.

“So, um,” Shirogane speaks up. “Is our next step going back into the program world to try and find Kiibo-kun’s avatar?”

“It is,” Kaede says with a nod. “I think all four of us should go, too.”

“Really now,” Hoshi says. “Seems like Chabashira staying behind was helpful last time.”

Kaede squeezes her eyes closed for a moment. “I hate to say this, but what Ouma-kun said earlier is true. After what happened to Yumeno-san, we just have to accept that this is the time when we’re in the most danger.”

Shirogane looks ill, shaking her head. “The idea that one of us would kill someone for no reason just because they could get away with it… ugh, it’s too horrible.”

“But she’s right,” Hoshi says. “This is just the world we live in now—for some reason we keep forgetting that.”

“So we all have to go in because,” Kaede says. She glances over the three people in front of her. “Because there’s a chance one of us is the culprit or worse.”

“‘Worse?’” Shirogane parrots. “What’s worse than the culprit?”

“The mastermind,” Tenko says, voice soft. “They’re the one who killed Yumeno-san, and with Kiibo-san’s death, they could murder anyone… and they could be in this room right now.” Her eyes flicker up to glance over each of them, a profound sadness in her gaze that causes Kaede’s stomach to lurch. “So,” she shakes her head. “Kaede-san is right—we all have to go in together—it’s the only way to make sure everyone is safe.”

Kaede nods as she moves back to her chair. “Right—let’s all go together, and,” she takes a deep breath, trying to summon any positive emotion over her own feelings of dread. “And we need to all work together to find out what happened to Kiibo-kun—for his sake as well as all of ours.”

“Y-Yeah!” Shirogane says. “We can’t give into despair now!”

Hoshi pause for a moment, staring hard at the floor. “We can’t… no,” he shakes his head before moving back to his chair. “The idea that we’d all just give up, and let ourselves be killed… it’s stupid. It’d take far more for that to happen…”

Kaede reaches up to nervously fiddle with her hat, something about Hoshi’s words making her deeply uncomfortable. However, as she looks back to him almost mindlessly adjusting his headset, she finds herself merely biting her lip. All she can really think as she sits back in her chair and plugging in her headset again is how just how small the list of people she can trust has become. Ouma told her to trust as many people as she did when Amami died. Kaede bites her lip again as Tenko offers her an encouraging smile before she places her own headset over her eyes.

Kaede pointedly waits to physically see the others enter the virtual world before she moves to turn her own headset back on. None of them seem to falter, though, and it’s soon enough that she’s flicking the switch to join them back in the virtual world. 

The codes rushes fast and blaring through her brain again, and she’s left blinking her eyes hurriedly as the flash of light descends around her tiny feet and back into the floor. 

The now familiar, simplified, and almost frustratingly cute versions of Shirogane, Hoshi, and Tenko stand before her, seemingly having recovered from the shock of entering the program. 

The others stare at her for a moment, and Kaede coughs to clear her throat before providing guidance. “Right, so, now that we’re all here, we should head to—”

“Oh, wait!” Shirogane suddenly calls out. “I just remembered something strange—Akamatsu-san how did you get into this room when you left the program for the first time?”

Kaede blinks, caught off guard by her question. “Huh? What do you mean?”

She points to the card reader. “I just remembered, Kiibo-kun had your ID card—that’s how the two of us got into the basement.”

“Oh,” Kaede says. Then, Shirogane’s words catch up with her. “Wait—what happened?”

“I think I mentioned this a bit before,” Shirogane begins. “But after Harukawa-san left, I was kind of at a loss. I was just in the entrance hall by myself for a while, but then Kiibo-kun came to try and get everyone together. Since Harukawa-san wasn’t there, I didn’t think we could get into the basement, but Kiibo-kun had your card, too, Akamatsu-san.”

“That’s right,” Hoshi says. “Remember Kiibo having two ID cards when he met up with us. It’s how he…” he suddenly stops, shaking his head. “Actually, Akamatsu, if Kiibo had your card, how did you even get back into the mansion?”

“Oh, right!” says Shirogane. “You would have been locked outside. So how—”

“Iruma-san helped me,” Kaede says quickly, the lie coming easily enough. “We realized that Kiibo-kun ran off with my card, so she made me a new one. It’s not really a big deal, so I didn’t think it mattered, too much.”

“Iruma made you a new one?” Hoshi asks. “I understand she can edit this world, but if that’s the case, why didn’t she just make multiple IDs earlier to explore alone?”

Kaede feels her lie starting to fall out from under her, and she stutters as she supplies, “I-I think it’s more about the spirit of things. I mean, the multiple people rule was implemented because we’re all supposed to work together and get along or something. A person just getting a new ID card wouldn’t really be breaking the rules or anything.”

Hoshi gives her a long look, and Kaede has no doubt that he doesn’t believe a word out of her mouth. In a low voice, he says, “Is that so?”

“Tenko, um,” Tenko says. “Tenko saw Kaede-san use her ID when we came back to the house, so she definitely had one then, b-but her second card probably isn’t related to the case since she only used it to get back to log out, and Tenko was with her the entire time.”

“That’s right,” Kaede says, perhaps a touch too quickly. “Kiibo-kun having two IDs might be important, but the fact that Iruma-san made me another one really doesn’t affect anything. All it means is that I didn’t have to get stuck outside in the snow, haha.” Her laugh is probably a bit forced, though Kaede knows her best chance is to convince Hoshi not to contradict her as talking him into believing in her seems to be an impossibility. 

“I see,” he says tersely. “And Chabashira and Iruma can confirm that then.”

“They can,” Kaede says brightly even as the thought of Iruma ruining her lie immediately rages through her mind. “Like I said, it’s really not a big deal—and also while we should remain suspicious of each other to a degree, if we can’t trust anyone even a little, investigating would be impossible.”

Hoshi watches her for another moment before sighing and walking over to the card reader. “Fine,” he says, dully swiping his card. “I hear you. Let’s just leave it at that.”

He leaves then, and Kaede squeezes her eyes shut, knowing she lost whatever battle they were having. Shirogane moves to hurry after him, saying, “Um, we probably shouldn’t keep Hoshi-kun waiting—he seems like he’s in kind of a bad mood.” She swipes her card and sighs. “I really had no idea that Hoshi-kun liked Kiibo-kun so much. Maybe the real love triangle was between them and Iruma-san? Oh, but I hate romance plots with no buildup—they’re always such a let down since there’s no emotional payoff, you know?”

“Sure,” Kaede says, very unsure. 

“Oh, sorry, maybe that didn’t make sense,” she says. “It’s just, like, you have a frog, for example, and then suddenly it meets another frog, and it’s on fire all of a sudden!” Kaede and Tenko give her twin looks of absolute confusion, and Shirogane stammers, “U-Um, I-I’m going to go catch up with Hoshi-kun.”

“We’ll be right after you,” Kaede says. Shirogane nods and shuffles through the door. With her gone, Kaede turns to Tenko. “Shirogane-san seems to have her mind on other things, so I don’t know how much we can rely on her.”

“Tenko doesn’t think we can rely on Hoshi-san, either,” Tenko says. “The way he was talking to you earlier… Kaede-san, do you think he suspects you?”

Kaede sighs. “He could be, but, honestly, even though he’s not acting as strange as Kaito, I get the feeling he’s hiding something, too.”

“Momota-san, Hoshi-san, and Ouma-san are all acting strangely,” Tenko shakes her head. “Maybe the culprit really is an awful boy.”

“I wouldn’t rule it out,” Kaede answers. “But we probably shouldn’t keep Shirogane-san and Hoshi-kun waiting, oh,” she smiles, “and thank you for helping cover for me, by the way. I know it makes things more difficult for you, but—”

“Tenko is happy to do it,” she says. “Tenko… doesn’t have a lot of people she feels she can rely on now, but she knows Kaede-san is one of them. And Tenko’s said it before, but she’ll say it again—Tenko would rather die than not be able to believe in the people she trusts.” She smiles gently. “Person she trusts.”

Kaede again hears Ouma’s words— _as many people as when Amami died_ —as she returns her smile. 

Neither of them bother with the card reader on their way out, and their arrival in the entrance hall receives little notice from either Hoshi or Shirogane who are both busy inspecting the map on the wall.

As they approach, Hoshi says, “Basement’s priority—but one of us has to stay behind.”

“Right,” Kaede says as she comes to stand next to them to get a better view of the map, herself. “The last person could maybe look outside or something—there’s always a chance something happened to Kiibo-kun on his way to the mansion that we don’t know about.”

“I could do that,” Shirogane says. “After all, I was the first person to meet Kiibo-kun when he arrived.” A determined look crosses over her face. “I’ll do my very best to wring out my brain for anything strange he might have said in our conversation.”

“Um, that sounds like a good idea,” Kaede says. “And the three of us will go down to the basement.”

“We’re going to trust Shirogane by herself then,” Hoshi says. “Even though the whole point of this is that we were going to stay together because we can’t trust anyone.”

Shirogane starts, waving her hand, quickly saying, “Ah—I promise I won’t do anything! Though… I suppose anyone would say that…”

“Wait,” Kaede says. “Actually, we can all investigate the basement together if someone just waits here for a little while.”

Tenko looks at her oddly, clearly wondering if she’s about to break their own promise when Shirogane gasps, “Oh, I think I know what you’re talking about—Kiibo-kun had two IDs with him, so three people just need to go, grab those and then come back.”

“And if someone as fast as Tenko or Hoshi-san does it,” Tenko says. “There will be no time for anyone to even think of committing murder.”

“Actually,” Kaede says. “We’re all the same speed in here, but, yeah!” She pumps her fists. “In that case, I’ll wait here—I trust you guys to do it as fast as possible.” 

Tenko nods. “Alright, we’ll be right back Kaede-san.”

Hoshi gives her an odd look but doesn’t protest as the three of them move to go down to the basement. In their brief absences Kaede lets out a deep breath, briefly wondering how many more times she’ll have to lie to hold up her increasingly shaky charade. She then thinks that the entire purpose behind doing so is because Hoshi or Shirogane might very well have just killed one of their friends.

Another moment passes as she turns that thought over again. Are they all friends? That had been one of her first promises—they’d all escape and become friends. Kaede squeezes her eyes closed as a brief flash of self loathing over how badly she failed burns through her. Then Tenko appears through the door, saying “Kaede-san?” and she has to go back to reality.

“Did you find the cards?” Kaede asks.

Tenko nods. “Tenko used all three of them in front of Hoshi-kun and Shirogane-san, so they’re still on the other side. Here,” she hands Kaede her old card. “Tenko’s… going to go back out of the program.”

“You are?” Kaede asks. 

“Tenko knows we talked a lot about how we all had to go in together, but,” she shakes her head. “She isn’t sure if we can trust Hoshi-san or Shirogane-san, but there’re also the others. Actually, Momota-san and Ouma-san seemed busy, and Iruma-san is working on Kiibo-san, but Harukawa-san…”

Kaede sighs. “That’s right. God,” she presses her hands to her eyes, and letting out a self deprecating laugh. “How could I forget about Harukawa-san trying to kill someone?”

Tenko shifts nervously. “Tenko wasn’t sure how to say this earlier or if she should say it in front of everyone, but,” she bites her lip. “When Harukawa-san logged out of the program, for a second, Tenko felt… a killing intent coming from her. Tenko was only able to watch her for a little while since she left with Momota-san pretty quickly, but…”

“Do you think it was directed towards Kiibo-kun?” Kaede asks.

“No,” she says. “The person Tenko noticed Harukawa-san kept looking at when she logged out was Ouma-san.”

“Ouma-kun…” Kaede frowns. “Do—wait. Do you think that had anything to do with the way Kaito was acting then? Like, when he said he would protect him? Did he mean from Harukawa-san?”

“Tenko doesn’t know,” she says with a shake of her head. “And she also has no idea how any of that is related to what happened to Kiibo-san.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “I know there’s still probably a lot we haven’t investigated, but everything we know so far seems so disconnected.” She frowns. “Or maybe I’m just thinking about it wrong…”

Tenko’s face turns grim. “Tenko… only briefly investigated Kiibo-san’s body, but, um,” she looks to Kaede with far too much concern. “Kaede-san, the scene of the crime is… strange. Please… make sure you’re ready before you go there.”

Kaede’s nerves spike—Tenko has been the bearer of awful news so many times, but had thus far always been direct about it. “I’ll—I’ll try.”

Tenko smiles encouragingly and moves to squeezes Kaede’s hands. “Okay. Tenko will watch over everyone from the outside—she promises she won’t let anything happen to you. Or Shirogane-san and Hoshi-san.”

“Thank you. I’ll be counting on you,” Kaede says, squeezing her hands back. “Oh, also—Tenko-san there’s one thing I’d like you to do when you log out.”

She nods. “Whatever it is, Tenko will do her best.”

“Can you talk to the Monokubs?” she asks. “I know they probably won’t help much with the investigation, but see if you can get any information out of them about the card readers.”

“Oh,” Tenko says, suddenly perking up. “Oh! Tenko will ask them, and—”

“Can you also keep it a secret from the others?” Kaede asks quickly. “I mean, I’ll probably talk about it at the trial, but for now…” she takes a deep breath. “There’s a chance we could use this to get the upper hand on the killer.”

“Tenko understands,” she says. “She will try to keep her investigation quiet.”

“Thank you,” Kaede says. “I should probably catch up with Hoshi-kun and Shirogane-san now before they get too suspicious.”

Tenko nods. “Okay. Tenko will see you later.” She squeezes her hands one more time before letting go to hand over her two ID cards, saying, “Just in case Hoshi-san or Shirogane-san are watching. Good luck, Kaede-san!”

“You, too,” Kaede says, smiling after her, as Tenko hurries down the hall and out of sight.

Alone again, Kaede takes another breath to calm herself, remembering Tenko’s warning about the crime scene as she steps through the door down into the basement.

There’s a short staircase she descends easily enough after the loading screen fades out, and it opens out into a short hallway lined with open doorways. Kaede counts eight on each side as she walks down the hall, peeking into each room to see a rather basic setup of a bedroom. More notably—each room is an absolute mess with the sheets torn off the beds, blankets and pillows thrown on to the floor, and other pieces of furniture lying haphazardly on the ground and scattered about even into the hall.

She finds Shirogane in one room near the end of the hall, and announces her presence as she walks in behind her with, “I wonder how long it’s been since someone cleaned up down here.”

Shirogane starts a bit at her words, spinning on her heel as she says, “Ah! Akamatsu-san, I was actually just thinking that same thing,” she brings a hand to her chin, “it’s weird to think that this place is messy when the rest of the house is so nicely organized.”

“The church was kind of a mess, too,” Kaede answers. “Though there wasn’t stuff just scattered on the floor like this. I think Iruma-san explained it as extra assets or something.”

“I guess that makes sense,” she answers. “Oh, and that actually reminds me—come look over here.”

Kaede follows her as Shirogane turns to a corner and sees a glittering gold statue of Iruma lying on the ground. “Huh,” Kaede says. “There were a lot of those in the church, too, and on the shed on top of the roof, but,” she frowns, “maybe I should look harder, but I didn’t see any of those down here.”

“This is the first one I’ve seen here, too,” Shirogane says. “I mean, this place was already kind of torn up when Kiibo-kun and I first came here, so I could have missed some, but I didn’t see a place where you could get a statue from like the shelf in the shed on the roof.”

“So,” Kaede says. “You think someone brought a statue down here? I guess they’d have to, but, why would someone do that?”

“I have no idea,” Shirogane says with a shake of her head. “But anyone who went to the roof or the church could have brought one here, right?”

“It’d also have to be someone who went to the basement,” Kaede adds. “But it seems strange someone would still carry one around.” She bends down to pick it up, weighing it in her hands. “It’s pretty heavy… You’d definitely have to go out of your way to carry this around.”

Shirogane nods in agreement. “Maybe someone just thought it was cool?”

Kaede laughs. “That’s a nice theory, though, I think that would narrow down our potential suspects to just Iruma-san.”

“Ah, that’s probably right,” Shirogane says with a smile. “But, um,” she glances around the room. “I can look over the other rooms a bit more if you want to go ahead to Kiibo-kun’s avatar… You’ll need to take a second person with you, but I plainly think you and Hoshi-kun should go ahead.”

Kaede nods, swallowing her own dread. “Got it. Hoshi-kun’s just in another room or something, right?”

“I think so,” she says. “Um, also, Hoshi-kun knows the layout, better than I do, but I think the basement just consists of this room of dorms and then a library in the back.”

“A library—” Kaede suddenly remembers Tenko’s warning. “Wait—Kiibo-kun’s avatar is in the library?”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “When Kiibo-kun and I first came down to the basement, we found Hoshi-kun and Ouma-kun in one of the rooms near the end of the hall.” She pauses for a second, taking another look around. “I think it was this room actually… um, but then Ouma-kun said that I should look around this the bedrooms a little more, and Kiibo-kun should go to the library with someone.”

“And that’s what you all did?” Kaede prompts. “Who went with Kiibo-kun?”

“Ouma-kun tried to volunteer,” Shirogane says, “but I actually think Hoshi-kun is the one who ended up going with him. Ouma-kun was kind of upset for some reason, so I think he was hanging around the doorway while I was trying to search the other rooms.”

Kaede frowns. “And Kiibo-kun… was killed in the library?”

“I think that’s right…” Shirogane says, hugging her arm. She glances around for a moment, and lowers her voice as she says, “Hoshi-kun said his avatar had already stopped moving when he followed after him and he came back almost immediately, but, in all honesty, I really suspect Hoshi-kun did something.”

“I see,” Kaede says. “Um, I guess I’ll still go with him, though—maybe see if he knows something since he was the first one to find Kiibo-kun’s avatar. Also, do you mind telling me what happened after Hoshi-kun came back? Just so I have a full picture of what happened?”

“Sure,” Shirogane says. “If I remember right—and you can ask Hoshi-kun or Ouma-kun later in case I mess something up—after Hoshi-kun came back, he said there was something wrong with Kiibo-kun’s avatar. Hoshi-kun had used Kiibo-kun’s ID to get back through the door, but then we all went together to see what had happened… and his body wasn’t moving—it was just lying in the doorway.”

Kaede swallows. “Um, Shirogane-san, this might sound weird, but by any chance… did it remind you of what happened to Amami-kun?”

“Oh,” Shirogane blinks. “I hadn’t been thinking about that, but kind of? I think I’d have to look at it again though… and honestly,” she sighs, “I really don’t like thinking about what happened to Amami-kun—the entire thing was just too cruel.”

“It was.” Kaede looks at the ground. “I think I’m going to go find Hoshi-kun now, but thank you for your help, Shirogane-san.”

“Of course,” she says. “And I’ll keep looking to see if I can find anything else.”

Kaede nods in affirmation as she leaves. Hoshi’s leaning against the wall next to doorframe, and as soon as Kaede exits, he says, “it’s fine if you suspect me.”

Kaede whips around, startled at the sound of his voice. “Oh! You’re… right there,” she says dumbly. “And you probably heard most of our conversation then, huh?”

“I did,” he says. “And I’ll say it again—I don’t care if you suspect me.”

“Well, I need to be suspicious of everyone,” Kaede answers diplomatically. “That’s the only way we can get through things.”

“It is,” Hoshi says. “And I think we’ve wasted enough time—Kiibo’s avatar should be through here.”

He starts walking towards the door in the back, Kaede following after his tiny form. He swipes his card and looks at her almost challengingly as Kaede moves to do the same. She meets his gaze as evenly as she can, saying, “After you.”

He says, “Kiibo’s body is right on the other side—don’t trip over him on your way in,” and vanishes through the door.

Kaede waits a few seconds to give him time to move away and takes a moment to steel herself be pressing forward. The darkness fades in, and it feels slightly longer than all the ones before it, but soon enough it vanishes again, and Kaede looks up to see a rather plain library around her and then down to see Kiibo’s unmoving avatar at her feet.

She can’t help but let out a soft gasp at seeing him, and Hoshi says over her, “The only people in this room before Kiibo were Momota and Ouma. Thanks to Momota, I got stuck searching the bedrooms by myself while they were supposed to investigate this place.” 

At his words, Kaede takes a moment to look up from Kiibo’s tiny, still body, and up at the room around her. The place is a near maze of haphazardly bookshelves that appear almost as if they were placed at random in the middle of the room and several ones rising all the way up to the ceiling line every wall, framing even the doorway. Kaede hesitantly walks around Kiibo’s body to inspect one of the shelves and sees titles identical to those of the books she had found in the church. She turns to another row, to see the exact same arrangement. The only things breaking up the monotony of books about how great Iruma is are the occasionally placed golden statues of the girl in question.

Behind her, Hoshi says, “Honestly the number one thing this place tells us is just how big Iruma’s ego is.”

“I can see that,” Kaede muses. 

Hoshi walks past her to another part of the rather awkward maze. “My guess is Momota and Ouma or maybe Kiibo and whoever killed him got into a fight over here.”

His words catch Kaede’s attention, and she follows him to peer down the row where he stands. In it, several books have been ripped off their shelves to lie scattered about, as well as a few golden Iruma statues. She walks down the aisle, trying to inspect it for any thing else out of place. “Our avatars don’t break,” Kaede says. “So I guess looking for injuries on Kiibo-kun’s body is out of the question.”

“Would seem to be the case,” Hoshi answers absently.

Kaede chooses to ignore the obvious lack of interest in his words as she continues on. “I wonder why if there was a fight, it’s only here, and not where Kiibo-kun’s body is.”

“Guess we’ll have to ask the culprit,” Hoshi says.

Kaede takes a breath and straightens her shoulders. “Hey, Hoshi-kun,” she says. “I know you don’t care if I do have to suspect you during the trial, but for some reason, I’m starting to think you want me to think you murdered one of our friends.”

“Well,” Hoshi says dully. “Who else do you think did it?”

Kaede narrows her eyes. “Don’t try to change the subject.”

“I’m not. Just asking a question,” he says. “Do you remember that last time we were in a library, talking about a murder, I asked Saihara if he had a culprit in mind? Had no clue I was talking to a killer.”

Kaede’s hands clench into fists. “What are you trying to say?”

He shrugs. “A few things, I guess. You can’t just look at someone and know if they’re a murder—think that’s pretty important. But, also,” he looks at the ground as he reaches to pull his hat down. “Nothing’s changed. We’re still here, our friends are still dying, and all of our pointless suffering is still just for someone else’s amusement.”

She watches him intently for a moment before bodily turning away. “We need to investigate Kiibo-kun’s murder. We can feel sorry for ourselves after everyone’s safe.”

“Sure,” Hoshi answers. “Just let me know when that is, Akamatsu.”

Kaede bites her tongue to stop herself from rising to his challenge as she approaches Kiibo’s avatar. She kneels next to it and notes that, like Hoshi said, it’s lying almost directly in the doorframe, as if he had just entered the room. The avatar itself is lying on its side as if he had just suddenly collapsed, and, though Kaede logically knows he must have been hurt somehow, there is a distinct lack of any external injuries. In the areas directly around his body, nothing seems amiss, and Kaede stands, moving to check the bookshelves on either side of his body, though those two seem untouched. 

For a moment, she stands with her hands on her hips, rather frustrated at the complete lack of evidence. Then she remembers Ouma and Tenko and Hoshi’s words, and takes a deep breath as she looks up. The bookshelves directly next to the door are almost unbelievably high, but, with a dawning horror, Kaede notices that the books lining one of the shelves are arranged in a slopping pattern—a pattern that would easily allow something round and heavy to roll along the tops of them. 

Her eyes dart to the ground again, and for a second she’s absolutely sure there has to be a bloody shotput somewhere around. But next to Kiibo’s body there is nothing. With her eyes still fixed on the ground, she says, “Hoshi-kun—is there anything like a ladder around here?”

“A what?” he asks, rounding the corner towards her.

“Like a stepladder or just anything you could climb?” she asks. “Anything at all like that?”

Despite all of his earlier aggression, Hoshi seems genuinely confused for a moment, as he says, “There’re some books stacked oddly in places—guess if you really wanted you could probably use them to climb or something. Might be possible with the rules of this world, too.”

Kaede frowns. “Stacking books to climb… that’d take a lot of time…” Her eyes dart back up to the horror above. “Could someone do that?” She scans the top of the shelf a bit more and makes note of the distinct lack of a vent like the one she had used so long ago. 

Beside her, Hoshi says, “Figure something out, Akamatsu?”

“No,” she says. “Nothing. I didn’t find anything new.”

He shrugs. “If you’re sure—you can look around more if you want, but I think that’s everything here.”

“No,” Kaede says. “I’m done—let’s just go back for now.”

They head towards the door, and Kaede takes one more moment to look at Kiibo’s avatar, wondering how much she’s responsible for his death, too. Hoshi exits quickly once Kaede swipes her card after him, though her eyes remain locked on Kiibo as he exits. There are so many things she doesn’t know, but perhaps the biggest one is why anyone would choose to kill Kiibo of all people. 

She sighs again and exits the room. Shirogane and Hoshi are standing in the hall, engaging each other in rather stiff small talk when Kaede enters. She does her best to put on a reasonably upbeat face, or—at the very least—a face that doesn’t betray the guilt threatening to eat her alive. “Shirogane-san,” she says walking up to them. “Did you find anything else?”

“Actually yes,” Shirogane says. “Um, but I don’t think it can help us much.”

“Tell us anyway,” Kaede says. “Just in case.”

“In that room,” Shirogane says, pointing to one close to the library, “I found a used Flashback Light.”

“A what?” Kaede asks.

“I think it was a one time use only?” Shirogane says. “But it was just lying under a blanket in one of the rooms. I tried turning it on, but nothing happened.”

Hoshi frowns, an odd look passing over his face. “So… wonder if that was our hint about the outside world.”

“And it was here the whole time?” Kaede asks. “Did everyone searching here just miss it?”

“Maybe,” Shirogane says with a shake of her head. “This place is such a mess it’s kind of a lot to look through. I wish Iruma-san made the program world a little tidier or something.”

“Can’t be helped,” Hoshi says. “Now, is there anything else we need to check or can we get out of this place?”

“I can still check outside like I volunteered to do earlier,” Shirogane says. “If everyone thinks it’s still necessary, that is.”

“Go ahead,” Kaede says. “There’re a few things I still want to check on back in the school.” She turns to Hoshi. “Hoshi-kun, is there anywhere you want to look around?”

He looks up at her, silent for a moment before saying, “I’ll go back to the school. There’s something I want to look into there as well.”

“Alright then,” Shirogane says. “I have to admit being by myself in the program world is a little scary, but I’m sure I’ll be okay as long as someone’s watching over my body in the real world.”

“We won’t let anything happen to you,” Kaede promises. 

They exit the basement and part ways at the top of the stairs with little fan fair. Shirogane waves them goodbye as she goes to wander in the snow, and Kaede finds herself alone with Hoshi again. 

He says, “Akamatsu—think you’ve seen almost everything. So, you have a guess now who the culprit is?”

Kaede glances down to him, refusing to take whatever bait he’s giving her. “Do you?”

Hoshi shakes his head. “Pretty childish response, but, yeah, got a few people in mind.” He looks up at her. “You’re not one of them, by the way.”

That takes Kaede slightly off guard, and she says, “You… trust me?”

He shrugs. “After everything you’ve done for us, doubting you’s hard even for a guy like me.”

“Then earlier why were you—”

“I trust you to find the truth,” Hoshi answers. “But I don’t believe for a second that you wouldn’t lie to me.”

Kaede narrows her eyes, piecing his words together. “So I’m not the killer, but I am a liar. Is that what you’re saying?”

“For the most part, yeah,” he says. “But,” his face darkens, “just because you can reveal the truth, doesn’t mean you should.”

With his cryptic words, Hoshi turns away from her, and Kaede doesn’t miss the fact that he enters the door to the salon without even glancing at the card reader. She follows after him, and on the other side, he’s already saying, “Hoshi Ryoma,” into the phone.

There’s little Kaede can do other than sigh as she approaches the phone. She weighs it in her hands for a moment before saying her name, and the flash of light dutifully rises up around her before her world turns back to darkness.

The blackness engulfing her shifts to a plainer one, and this time Kaede doesn’t hesitate as she reaches up to pull her headset off of herself. Though she didn’t take a particularly long time to exit after him, Kaede notices Hoshi is already almost to the doors of the computer room as she blinks to clear her eyes. 

The worlds finally swims back into focus as she hears the doors swing shut behind Hoshi, and then Tenko’s voice softly calling out, “Kaede-san? Are you alright?”

“Yes,” she answers, reaching up to rub at her eyes. “We just finished—well,” she glances towards Shirogane. “Shirogane-san said she’d stay in the program word for a little longer to try and see if she could find anything outside the mansion.”

Tenko nods. “Alright—Tenko will watch over her body to make sure nothing happens. Oh, but if you have a second, Tenko was also able to talk to the Monokubs a little.”

Kaede perks up at her words. “What did you find?”

“Tenko asked the green one—she thinks it’s Monodam or something like that—about the card readers forcing everyone to travel in groups, and it said ‘something like that sounds like a great idea to help everyone get along.’” 

Kaede brings a hand up to fiddle with her hat. “Then Iruma-san did lie,” she says. “I guess the question now is why.”

“There’s one more thing that might be helpful,” Tenko says, and she points towards a computer in the back where Monotaro is sitting, his paws rapid fire hunt-pecking over the keyboard. “That one was referring to Kiibo-san as his father before and asked Tenko if he could do anything to help avenge him.”

Kaede blinks at the odd sight. “So… what is he doing?”

“Tenko was still trying to investigate the card readers, so she asked if he could find anything in the program’s code about them,” she says. “Tenko doesn’t really understand a lot about computers, but he said something about finding out their logs?”

“‘Logs?’” Kaede echoes. “Were they recording something?”

Tenko shakes her head. “That’s Tenko’s guess, but,” she glances back to Monotaro. “She’ll ask when he’s done… however long that takes. Um,” she looks back to Kaede. “Is there anything else we need to check Kaede-san? Tenko needs to stay here, but…”

“There is,” Kaede says. “I want to go talk to Kaito and Ouma-kun.” She sighs. “I don’t know if they’ll tell me the truth, but I need their testimonies.” 

“Okay,” Tenko says, looking to the ground. “Tenko… will watch over Shirogane-san and read whatever the bear finds. Um,” she tries to smile. “Good luck, Kaede-san.”

Kaede says goodbye and walks out of the room, doing her best to keep her legs from giving out from under her. 

-

She’s far too thankful she doesn’t see anyone on the walk to the dorms, and Kaede takes a moment to straighten her shoulders and her hat before she knocks on Momota’s door. 

There’s a brief moment where she hears shuffling, then Momota cracks the door open about a fraction. “Oh, Kaede,” he says opening it further. “Sorry—thought you were someone else.”

“Okay?” Kaede says, attempting to look around him. “Is Ouma-kun there, too?”

“Yeah,” Momota says. 

Kaede hears Ouma’s voice call out, “Momota-chan played with me for the whole investigation!” 

“Nice to hear you two are getting along again,” Kaede says, not bothering to hide her skeptism. 

Momota sighs as he runs a hand through his hair. “Something like that—though if Ouma makes me play one more game of fucking I Spy…”

She smiles. “Well, if I can interrupt your playdate, I have a few questions I’d like to ask you.”

“Alright—also, uh,” he sighs again. “Sorry for acting so weird earlier. Something came up.”

“Can you tell me what?” Kaede asks.

Momota pauses, and Ouma calls out, “Geeze, Akamatsu-chan! Even though Momota-chan’s your friend, he doesn’t have to tell you everything.”

“So,” Kaede says. “You admit you’re keeping secrets?”

Momota looks up at her, face somber. “I fucking swear it has nothing to do with what happened to Kiibo.” 

“And I want to believe that,” she says. “So, can you tell me what happened then?”

“Yeah,” he says, nodding his head. “So first, Ouma, me, and Hoshi went down to the basement, but there was a door in the back that would only let two people in, so Hoshi volunteered to stay behind.”

“Which was just as well!” Ouma says, and Kaede hears his footsteps hurry towards the door before he peaks out at her from around Momota. “Because Hoshi-chan’s cool and all, but we was being such a third wheel.”

Momota scowls. “Shut the fuck up.”

Kaede frowns. “So the two of you went to the library by yourselves then?”

“Yeah,” Momota says. “We looked around there for a bit but found jack shit.”

“And Momota-chan was really mean and wouldn’t even let me ride on his shoulders to check the higher shelves,” Ouma adds.

“Did anything else happen?” Kaede persists. “Even if it seems small, it could be important.”

“Nope,” Ouma says brightly. “We just had a lovely time together, that’s all!”

Momota rolls his eyes. “It was honestly just really boring to tell you the truth. Also Iruma’s a huge fucking ego case.”

“Okay, so you just looked around?” Kaede asks. “And then you got logged out?”

He nods. “Yeah—no fucking clue why though.”

“I see,” Kaede says. “And what happened after that?”

Momota shakes his head. “Chabashira tried to help me log back in, but then, uh,” he frowns. “Something came up that I had to deal with.”

“I already talked to Tenko-san,” Kaede says. “She said Harukawa-san—”

“And I already took care of it,” he says quickly. “So it’s not a problem.” 

She looks at him, and he says, “Really.”

Kaede doesn’t have to say anymore to know he’s not going to budge on this. She turns to Ouma. “And what happened to you after that?”

“Well,” he puts a finger to his chin. “First I was sad that my beloved Momota-chan disappeared, so I went back to other room to look for clues for a little while… and chatted with Hoshi-chan. Then Kiibo and Shirogane-chan showed up—oh, and Kiibo had your ID, Akamatsu-chan! Did he steal it from you?”

“No,” Kaede says. “I just gave it to him and forgot to take it back, but that’s not what we’re talking about. Can you tell me what happened next?”

“Wow, Akamatsu-chan, so many questions!” Ouma says. “Almost like a real detective—I didn’t know you had two talen—”

“I asked you what happened next,” Kaede says tightly.

Ouma smiles back her. “I was bored of the library, but Kiibo wanted to explore it, so he and Hoshi-chan went ahead. But then Hoshi-chan came back super fast and told us something was wrong with Kiibo. We looked around for a while to try and get him to wake up, but then I said I heard Iruma-chan and everyone believed me for some reason, so we all went back upstairs.”

Momota frowns at him. “So you admit to lying to everyone.”

“Akamatsu-chan already figured it out earlier,” he answers. “And besides, this was a helpful lie.”

“Right…” Kaede says warily, looking to Momota for confirmation.

He shrugs in response. “Wasn’t there, but that’s probably what happened. At least none of it seemed weird to me. I mean, he could be lying—don’t know why he fucking would though.”

Ouma grins. “My Momota-chan knows I only tell helpful lies, too!”

Kaede looks between them. “Well, I think that’s everything. Thanks for your help.”

Momota salutes her. “You got it.”

Kaede tries to smile back as nonchalantly as she can as Momota shuts the door. She hears the two of them begin to argue over something inane, and she clenches her jaw, trying not to dwell on just how much their story conflicted with the one Hoshi had told her earlier.

-

When the doors to the school close behind her, Kaede resolves to take a brief trip to the bathroom to splash water on her face to calm every raging emotion threatening to overtake her before heading back to the computer room. She makes the walk in peace until she notices Maki standing alone outside the girls’ bathroom, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. 

“Harukwa-san?” she says. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for Iruma,” Maki says. “She was working in her lab, and then suddenly shouted that she had to go to the bathroom. So,” she shrugs. “I’m waiting to force her to explain herself when she’s done.”

Kaede frowns. “Has she been in there long?”

“Almost twenty minutes now,” Maki says. “Of course, I’m sure if I bring that up she’ll say something disgusting.”

“That’s… probably true,” Kaede says before shaking her head. “Anyway, Harukawa-san, I want to ask you something. Tenko-san said you logged out of the program ear—”

“I did,” she says. “Is there a problem with that?”

Kaede resists the urge to roll her eyes. “You really don’t need to withhold information from me for literally everything.”

“If it’s not important to the trial,” Maki says. “Then I see no reason why I need to tell anyone what I was doing.”

Kaede can’t stop herself from glaring. Then she says, “Tenko-san said she saw you watching Ouma-kun. What do you have to say about that?”

“I’d say she’s always had a wildly out of control imagination,” Maki says evenly. “Also, I understand the two of you are attached at the hip, but Chabashira’s a rather poor choice for an investigation partner in my opinion.”

“Well, Harukawa-san, I really don’t care about your opinion,” Kaede replies. “And I have no idea why you think I do.”

Maki’s face darkens, and she opens her mouth to speak when the door to the girls’ bathroom suddenly slams open.

They both turn to see Iruma framed in the doorway, her monopad held in one hand. Her eyes dart between them, and she says, “Can’t a girl fucking shit in peace?”

Kaede sighs. “Iruma-san, were you able to figure out anything about what happened to Kiibo-kun?”

Iruma runs a hand through her hair. “Almost everything was fucking fried—nothing in his body would respond to any commands—honestly most of him is fucking scrap metal now.”

“Poor Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says, looking at the ground. 

“His main A.I. was shot to shit, too,” Iruma says before breaking out into a bright, genuine smile. “So it’s a really good fucking thing I set his A.I. to back up earlier.”

“You saved him!?” Kaede says.

Iruma turns the monopad towards them. “Check it out, baby—maybe his body’s gone, but Kiibs isn’t out of the game yet.”

Kaede stares intently at the screen and notices out of the corner of her eye that Maki does as well as it lights up. Then Kiibo’s face is blinking at them. “Kiibo-kun,” Kaede breathes out. “Is that you?”

He smiles. “Hello, Akamatsu-san and Harukawa-san! I am afraid my processes are limited now, but—”

“Do you know who killed you?” Maki asks.

His smile falters. “I… was killed?”

Kaede looks up at Iruma in confusion. “What?”

“I set him to back his A.I. up at midnight every night,” Iruma says. “Which means,” she sighs, “this is a copy of Kiibo who doesn’t have any memories of what happened after that.”

“And he lives in your monopad,” Maki says.

“I did my fucking best!” Iruma screams, not flinching even under Maki’s cold glare. “I fucking saved him!”

Kiibo’s voice calls out, “Iruma-san, are you alright? Is something wrong—”

“No,” she says. “Everything’s fine—and the fucking trial’s cancelled now, right?”

Kaede blinks. “Oh. That’s actually a really good—”

“Wrong!” says a voice behind them, and all three girls spin around to see Monokuma back from the dead behind them.

Maki’s the first to recover, asking, “What do you mean ‘wrong?’”

“I mean of course there’s going to be a trial!” he says. “Even if the victim isn’t dead, their body was discovered and a victim they remain—that’s why we could count a robot like Kiibo at all!”

“But,” Kaede’s mind races. “Wait. We’re going to have a trial when there isn’t a victim!?”

“There may not be a victim,” Monokuma says, bringing his paws to his mouth. “But there certainly was an attempt to graduate, and there certainly is a blackened among you.”

“But if Kiibo-kun’s fine—”

“He was still murdered,” Maki says. “Like Iruma said,” she gestures towards the monopad. “This is just a copy. If you cloned someone after you killed them, you couldn’t just say that undid their death.”

“So you want someone else to die!?” Kaede shouts at her. 

“Please, ladies,” Monokuma says. “Save it for the class trial—speaking of which, I think it’s about time we get that ball rolling!”

Kaede turns back to him. “No, this is—”

A chime goes off to echo Monokuma’s words, and Kaede uselessly shouts over it, “He’s not dead!”

Monokuma disappears in the midst of a fit of laughter, and Kaede distantly hears Kiibo say, “Was someone killed?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The entire time I was writing this chapter I was making "sometimes I can still hear his voice" jokes to myself. But, for the record as described, Kiibo is still officially dead, and isn't going to participate in a lot of things because of that. Also English V3 is out and that is great (even though I'm still on chapter 1)! 
> 
> Another quick announcement is that hopefully I will be able to update next week, though I might not due to having some midterms coming up. If I am unable to update, I will instead start doing something I've been meaning to do for a while now, which is go back through this story from the beginning to generally edit typos, clean up language, etc., just to make it better overall!


	24. Trial VII

Maki storms away, her hair whipping after her and trailing slightly aloft from the speed she moves at. Kaede can’t help but glare after her, curling her hands into fists, purely from her own frustration. She’s very aware how illogical and rude it would be to hope someone is the killer, as no one deserves Monokuma’s executions. But if the culprit has to be someone… Kaede shakes her head to rid herself of her guilt over her own horrid thoughts, and turns back to Iruma.

She shifts awkwardly on the spot, gripping tightly onto her monopad—or, Kaede, supposes, Kiibo—as he says, “There’s going to be a trial?”

Kaede exchanges a look with Iruma and lets out a sigh. “Someone… destroyed your body, Kiibo-kun, and Monokuma’s counting it as a corpse,” she says. “Even if you’re fine, we still need to figure out who did this to you.”

“Still need to fucking execute someone,” Iruma mutters darkly under her breath. 

Kaede bites her lip, pausing for a moment as Kiibo says, “I… see. I am afraid I will be of little help in the trial due to, ah, my current circumstances.”

“Don’t need to solve your own fucking murder,” Iruma says. “Bakamatsu’ll figure out who fucked you in the ass before you even finished installing.”

“Finished installing?” Kaede echoes. “Is Kiibo-kun—”

Iruma waves a hand. “He’s got a bunch more shit to run that takes longer to finish than some people around here if you know who I’m talking about.”

Kaede furrows her brow at Iruma’s specific turn of phrase as Kiibo interjects, “I believe Iruma-san is referring to the fact that while I am able to speak to you now, there are several more parts of myself that are still be configured. Fortunately, it seems this software is strangely compatible with my own.”

“Huh,” Kaede says. “I don’t really know a lot about computers, but that’s…” she looks up to Iruma. “Actually that sounds really weird.”

She just shrugs in response. “Don’t know what to fucking tell you—I thought it was gonna be actual hell, but it fit perfectly—nice and tight, with no—”

“Anyway,” Kaede says quickly. “Kiibo-kun, if you need to… focus on installing yourself or something, it’s okay.”

“Yeah!” Iruma says, her enthusiasm surprising Kaede. “Make sure you’re at a hundred percent and all that shit!”

Kiibo seems a bit confused as well, saying, “That is my goal, so I will try. Very well then,” he smiles. “I will attempt to join the trial after I have finished. However,” his smile falters. “If there is still time to bring this up, there is one issue that is troubling me.”

Iruma frowns. “What? I didn’t fuck anything up—I checked like eighty million times to make sure it was right.”

“It is the only thing that that seems to be amiss,” he adds quickly, though remaining persistent in his train of thought. “Though all other parts of my A.I. seem to be functioning correctly thus far, given their limited spaces, I can no longer hear my inner voice.”

Kaede isn’t sure how to respond to that question, and looks over him to Iruma as she says, “Oh, um, is that not part of your programming, then?”

“The only thing I backed up was the A.I. itself,” Iruma says. “If God or your conscience or the fucking devil on your shoulder wasn’t part of that, then it’s shot to shit.”

“I see,” Kiibo says. “That is rather unfortunate… but I suppose there is nothing that can be done.”

“Uh,” Iruma’s bravado falters, and she mumbles, “S-Sorry, Kiibs… you—your inner something was really important to you, uh,” she suddenly begins to stammer, “I-I can look over your body and see if I can figure it out later! I’ll go over every part and work you all night until I find the special spot!”

Kaede winces, though Kiibo doesn’t appear to pick up the double meaning of her words, saying, “Thank you, Iruma-san! After this trial, I’m sure you will sort everything out! I shall leave my hope with you.”

“Ah—” Iruma stutters. “Y-Yeah, s-sure—I’m pretty fucking great, so, uh, I’ll help you out and shit after the stupid trial o-or whatever…”

He smiles. “Thank you, Iruma-san. I will be counting on you then to look after me, and I will hopefully join you again later. Goodbye for now.”

“Yeah, bye, Kiibs…” she says, her cheerfulness suddenly fading away.

“Bye, Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “Do your best to recover, and we’ll find out why this happened to you.”

“Thank you, Akamatsu-san,” he says. “Well, is you’ll excuse me, I will be shutting down now until I am more fully operational. Please, do your best until then.”

He smiles again at them, and then screen flickers for a second before turning off completely. Kaede blinks. “He can just turn himself off?”

Iruma says, “He can do a bunch of shit—like I said, I’ll keep an eye on how he’s doing during the trial, but I don’t think he’ll need any help if I set everything up right, and,” she tosses her hair over her shoulder, “since I am the great Iruma Miu, there’s no fucking doubt that he’s good to go—no need to think twice.”

“Didn’t you say you checked a bunch of times first to make sure he was running, right?” Kaede asks.

“W-Well, you also can’t rush genius!” Iruma spits back. “I mean, yeah, I could shat out better crap than you with my eyes closed, but there’s some shit you gotta finesse, you know!”

Kaede rolls her eyes, but can’t help smile. “And Kiibo-kun’s wellbeing is one of those things you wanted to make sure you did right, isn’t it?”

Iruma freezes for a moment before moving to shove her monopad back into her pocket. “Shut the fuck up,” she tosses her hair over her shoulder. “As if a frigid virgin like you knows anything.”

Kaede just shakes her head before looking the soberness of their situation fall back over her. “Anyway, while this is really good news, we still need to—”

“I know!” Iruma snaps. “As if I don’t fucking know! Especially after all that crap everyone always says about finding justice, and—”

“No,” Kaede says. “I know. What we have to do next… there’s nothing just about it, not just because Kiibo-kun’s alive, either.” She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment. “The trials have never been about justice or finding the truth—they’re just there to make us suffer. But,” she looks at Iruma, trying to summon what little inspiration she has, “we still have to get through them, and I’m still going to uncover what happened here, for the good of everyone.”

Iruma frowns, pulling at her hair, “I guess—long as my ass doesn’t get killed, I don’t really give a shit what you uncover…”

“Ah, well,” Kaede falters. “I guess—oh!” she suddenly springs to attention. “I just remembered, I need to go check something with Tenko-san before the trial—ugh, I hope there’s enough time left.”

Iruma snorts. “You don’t have to fucking hold my hand on the way there. I can go to the goddamn trial myself—not like I don’t know where it is.”

“Alright then,” Kaede says, already beginning to jog away from her, “I’ll see you later then, Iruma-san!”

Iruma gives her a dull wave goodbye as Kaede starts sprinting back to the computer room, wondering just how much time she’ll have to go over what for all she knows might be the most important piece of evidence.

Tenko’s exiting the computer room with a long folded piece of paper in her hands as Kaede rounds the corner towards her. “Ah, Tenko-san!” she says, rushing up to her. “Did you and Shirogane-san find anything?”

“Shirogane-san already left,” Tenko says. “And if she found anything, she did not tell Tenko, ah,” she looks back down at the paper in her hands. “Sorry, Kaede-san, Tenko was kind of distracted with this when Shirogane-san logged out.”

Tenko holds it out slightly to her, and Kaede leans closer to get a better look. She scans it briefly, noting the paper seems to be a list of names with a time and location written after each one. She randomly reads one aloud, choosing, “Harukawa Maki—5:56, entrance hall to salon.” She looks to Tenko. “Is this… a list of when we used the card readers?”

“Tenko thinks so,” Tenko says. “She asked the bear, and it said this information was apparently being recorded and sent somewhere within the program world. Tenko doesn’t think it would lie, so this is probably trustworthy.”

“I can look it over to see if everything roughly matches up with how I remembered it, too,” Kaede says. “And I guess we really don’t have a choice in trusting if the information was being sent somewhere else since we can’t really prove or disprove it… especially since the investigation is over.”

“Ah, right,” Tenko says. “Um, Kaede-san, we can talk on the way, and you’d probably know more about what happened in the program, but Tenko thinks she found one thing that was sort of strange when she was reading it over earlier.”

Kaede nods as they start walking together. “Really? What is it?”

She points to part of the list as they go, saying, “Tenko wasn’t really sure what to look for, so she just tried looking for things about Kiibo-san since… he’s the victim, but—”

“Oh!” Kaede says suddenly. “Tenko-san, I forgot to say, but Kiibo-kun’s okay—Iruma-san saved him.”

Tenko gasps. “She did!? Ah,” she smiles, pressing her hands with the list still in them to her heart. “Tenko is so happy Kiibo-san’s alright… Does this mean no one has to die now, too? No one has to be punished?”

Kaede feels her throat tighten. “Uh, no…” she looks at the ground as she walks. “When Iruma-san told me, Monokuma appeared and announced we still had to do the trial, so,” she sighs. “Our lives are still on the line, and, if everything goes right, someone’s still going to be executed.”

“Oh…” Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko supposes Monokuma would do something like that… and one of us still at least tried to murder Kiibo-san.”

“They did,” Kaede says, “but,” she looks back up to Tenko, trying to halt the sheer misery creeping over her. “Anyway, what did you say you found when you were reading the list?”

“Ah,” Tenko looks to it again, eyes quickly scanning over the rows and rows of text before she points to a specific section. “Tenko doesn’t really know what everyone was doing, so this could be nothing, but she noticed that after a certain point, it looks like Kiibo-san stopped using his card.”

Kaede blinks. “What?”

“See, here,” Tenko says, finger underlining a Kiibo’s name in one section. “This is the last time it seemed that Kiibo-kun used his card anywhere except for the time Tenko used it in front of Hoshi-san and Shirogane-san.”

Kaede reads line Tenko’s pointing to aloud, “Kiibo—2:48, mansion front doors to outside… almost everyone else’s names are listed right before and after him, so I think that’s when we all left together to go to the church, but,” she frowns. “I definitely saw him using his ID later—he was with me and Iruma-san after we split up, and I remember watching him use it to enter and exit the church.”

Tenko frowns, and shifts the list to find a different part. “Um, no,” she says as she points to a different section. “Tenko obviously wasn’t there, but you, Iruma-san, and Ouma-san went to the church.”

That catches Kaede off guard enough that she physically stops in her tracks for a moment. “What?” 

“Uh,” Tenko walks over to her, showing off part of the list. “From what Tenko read, everyone else, not including Kiibo-san, went back to the mansion. Um,” she shifts nervously. “Does that help things make sense?”

Kaede shakes her head. “No—if anything this just creates another mystery.” She starts walking again. “Tenko-san, let’s also just be quiet about this until it seems right to bring it up. I have a pretty strong feeling the culprit probably knew about this.”

Tenko nods. “Tenko will not mention it until you do Kaede-san.”

“Thank you,” she says. “Honestly, after talking to everyone, I think you might be the only person I can trust right now. So,” Kaede tries to give her best supportive smile. “We’ll just have to be a team—we’ll back each other up no matter what happens.”

Tenko smiles. “Tenko will do everything she can, and no matter what, Tenko will believe in you.”

And Kaede feels her smile grow more genuine. “I believe in you, too. And,” she pumps her fists, “I believe we can get through this.”

They finish the walk towards the trial grounds, exchanging words of encouragement and further going over the log for information. Tenko’s observations can only do so much, though as Kaede takes it in, she notes plainly that according to its data, she was supposedly with Iruma and Ouma for most of her time in the virtual world. And again she thinks, _why does it always come back to him?_

Everyone else is already gathered by the elevator, and Iruma seems to be engaged in a rather heated argument with the others. As they approach, Kaede starts to ask, “What’s going—”

“Kaede! Chabashira!” Momota shouts. “Did you hear? Kiibo’s fucking alive!”

“As alive as a robot can be!” Ouma adds pleasantly. “Looks like Kiiboy lives to beep and boop another day—and that Iruma-chan isn’t a total waste of space!”

Iruma scowls. “Shut your fucking whore mouth,” she says, jabbing a finger at him as he grins up at her. “You spent the whole investigation sucking flowerbrain’s dick, and you’re giving me shit for being useful!? I’ll have you know the great Iruma Miu—”

“Can we get this started already?” Maki says. “Iruma’s given me enough of a headache already. The sooner I can stop having to hear her voice the better.”

Iruma wilts, stuttering, “I-I was j-just defending myself…”

Hoshi ignores her, saying, “Have to agree—the sooner we get this over with the better.”

“Yeah,” Shirogane says. “Our lives are still on the line, after all, so we probably shouldn’t dawdle, especially we can’t just save and reload if we need a break. Oh,” she hugs her arm, “this would be so much easier if we could just make a contract with Monokuma and rewind time, though that might only lead to more despair…”

“As I was saying,” Maki says. “My patience with listening to idiotic nonsense is already wearing dangerously thin.”

“And you’ll threaten to kill us a bunch?” Ouma asks. “Man, I wonder what it would be like if I tried using the same terrible answer for every problem I ever had.” He grins, folding his hands behind his head. “I bet I would be as interesting and unpredictable as you, Harumaki-chan.”

She glares. “Do you want to be killed?”

And Ouma just smiles back, her answer speaking to his victory more than anything he could say would. Momota steps between them, saying, “Harukawa—calm down—I get thinking Ouma’s a fucking brat, but now’s really not the time.”

“Right,” Kaede says. “Our personal problems with each other aren’t important right now.”

“Oh?” asks Ouma. “Is that so? Personally, I think that’s the only thing that’s important.”

Kaede regards him warily as Hoshi asks, “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

Tenko steps forward. “Ouma-san, Tenko will not tolerate anyone—especially a terrible boy like yourself—withholding information.”

“Guys,” Momota says with a sigh. “Just ignore him for now—I’m sure he’ll say whatever cryptic bullshit’s important at the trial.”

“Aww,” Ouma says practically beaming up at him. “I can always count on my beloved Momota-chan to protect me.”

Momota rolls his eyes in response. “Shut up—I’m not—”

“No,” Maki suddenly snaps. “Why do you always take his side?”

He throws his hands in the air. “I’m not fucking taking sides—”

“You are,” Maki insists, taking a step towards him. “And for some reason you always end up supporting him, even after all he’s done, and—”

“That’s not true!” Momota shouts. His sudden spike in volume casts a brief silence over them as everyone turns to stare with mixed looks of confusion and concern. And he falters, words catching up to his thoughts. “I mean—fuck,” he shakes his head. “Look I just… I just made a fucking mistake, and I’m dealing with it, and that’s really all anyone needs to know.” He turns to Maki and speaks only to her. “Okay, Harumaki?”

Her glare doesn’t falter as her eyes flicker over him, and her pigtails snap violently as she jerks her head away from him saying, “Fine—be a hypocrite,” as she stomps towards the elevator.

He just sighs and looks at the ground, cursing under his breath. Ouma hums, “Trouble in paradise?”

“I think this is a little more than just that,” Shirogane adds. “Usually conflicts in shoujo romance manga—”

“Shirogane-san,” Kaede says gently. “I really don’t think now is the time.”

Iruma snorts. “As if anyone gives a shit about dumb and fucking idiot’s sex life anyway.”

“Talking about this is a waste of time,” Hoshi says, pointedly walking past her to the elevator. “If anyone has anything important to say, they can do it at the trial.”

“Yep, yep!” Ouma says cheerily, skipping after him. “I have a feeling this will be an extra fun one, too.”

Shirogane says, “How can anyone say something like that? But, ugh,” she starts to warily follow after him, “we really should get going…”

“Right,” Kaede says with a nod before glancing back over to Momota, still looking down. She thinks almost absently that she would reach out in reassurance if she trusted him more. But as it stands, she says, “Hey, we have to go now—if you want to talk something over with Harukawa-san, you can do it later, okay?”

He swears again as he nods. “Yeah—yeah, I fucking know.” With another sigh, he looks up finally and walks past Kaede without a glance her way. 

Alone with Tenko and Iruma, the latter voices Kaede’s thoughts on their situation aloud, “What the fuck is wrong with everyone?” 

“There’s been another murder,” Tenko says. “That is what is wrong with everyone, Iruma-san.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says, leading the way to the elevator with as much confidence as she can muster, even as she thinks _is that it?_

The ride down is quiet, and Kaede notes that with only half of the people she promised she would save remaining, the tiny room feels so, so empty.

In the trial room, Monokuma dutifully gives his explanation, his children butting in every so often to voice their surprise that their father is alive again. It all means very little to Kaede as she moves to her all too familiar podium. The entire thing feels so routine—so normal, and she sees Monokuma decorated Angie’s portrait with tiny angel wings and Kiibo’s with a perfectly uniform typeset X. 

It’s not her, and she’s decided to put faith in Tenko, and that’s where her belief ends. Before a word has even been said, Kaede rationalizes that at the very least, it’s a one in six shot of getting it right. Earlier she had realized it was a one in five guess of picking the mastermind, and as their numbers dwindle further and further, they have less people to hide behind. The more they play the game, the harder keeping their secret becomes. Of course, blindly murdering each other until they get it right is a lesson Kaede learned a long time ago.

But thinking of Amami makes her think of Ouma’s warning, and she turns to him as he gets the first word in, “So first thing’s first,” he says, “the first person to find the body is always the most suspicious—so, Chabashira-chan—”

“Tenko has found almost every body so far,” Tenko says, voice firm. “She discovered Amami-san in the library, and Tojo-san in the pool, and Gonta-san on the fourth floor.” She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment. “And now Kiibo-san in the computer room. The only thing that means is that Tenko has seen her friends’ corpses too many times.”

“Hey, also,” Momota says. “Me and Harumaki were right outside the door—I mean we were talking, but we probably would’ve heard if Chabashira was doing any weird crap. Plus, when we came in, she was just kinda standing around confused before the body announcement went off.”

“Doing anything when someone’s getting it on right outside doesn’t seem possible, then, huh?” Iruma adds.

Kaede clears her throat and Iruma’s words away with a cough. “And, Tenko-san was also outside the program world the whole time—if she had wanted to do anything to any of us—which she didn’t—she could have done it at a much more convenient time.”

“Oh, yeah,” Shirogane says. “It would seem weird for the culprit to wait until witnesses are literally right outside the door to try anything, unless they had a magic notebook that could—”

“Also,” Maki says. “The Monokuma File said Kiibo suffered no external injuries, which we can probably take to mean that no one broke into his circuits from the outside.”

Kaede nods. “That sounds right, Iruma-san,” she turns to the other girl. “You know the computer room pretty well—there aren’t any tools up there someone could use to dismantle Kiibo-kun or remove any parts of him, right?”

“Yeah, it was fucking shit!” Iruma says. “I had to get no-tits to carry him down to my lab since there was fuck all to repair him with up there.”

“And when you were examining him, were there any signs that someone had tampered with him or injured him from the outside?” Kaede asks.

Iruma rolls her eyes. “If there was, I would’ve already fucking said something, whale tits.” 

Kaede sighs. “Alright—basically all that means, that whatever happened to Kiibo-kun had nothing to do with Tenko-san.”

“And that means it is impossible that Tenko is the culprit,” Tenko says. “And all of that is ignoring that Tenko would never harm Kiibo-san in the first place.”

“Well, duh,” Ouma says easily. “I knew that.”

Hoshi sighs. “And then you accused her because…? Did you think it would be funny to waste our time?”

Ouma clicks his tongue. “Not a waste of time—I just think it’s really important we established that Chabashira-chan is innocent. After all,” he places a finger to his lips, “I think we need to know whose word we can trust before we move any further.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “And what is that supposed to—”

“Simple,” he says, folding his hands behind his head. “Chabashira-chan is telling the truth—so any testimonies that conflict with hers must be lies.”

Maki sighs. “Would you like to provide more logic a four year old could figure out or can we actually move on with our lives?”

“I think,” Kaede says. “That Ouma-kun has a point—we were all really split up during the incident, so establishing a baseline for what has to be true might be a good idea.”

“‘What has to be…’” Momota begins to say before frowning. “Kaede, are you saying that you think some of us—other than fucking Ouma—are lying?”

“Anyone who lies who isn’t the killer is only hurting themselves,” Tenko adds. “However… Tenko believes that might very well be the case—after what happened to Yumeno-san—”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Ouma says. “As if we haven’t heard that story a million times. Point is,” he beams, “I just think we need to accept the fact that maybe more than just the killer has something to hide.”

Momota clenches his jaw. “What the fuck are you doing?” 

Ouma smiles back at him. “Nothing, but, oh,” his smile darkens. “Did you assume I was talking about you, Momota-chan? Please, you know I would never betray my beloved—”

“Leave him alone,” Maki says sharply. “Momota was with me when the murder happened—he has nothing to do with this. Questioning him would just be a waste of time.”

Kaede’s eyes dart between the three of them, not believing Maki’s declaration for a second. “Right… in that case,” she’s very aware how false her cheerfulness sounds when she asks, “Harukawa-san, would you mind telling everyone what you were doing before Kiibo-kun’s death? I already asked Shirogane-san, but she said she might remember wrong.”

Maki glares. “I was with Momota. Chabashira can confirm, and we all agreed to blindly trust her apparently.” 

“It’s not blind,” Kaede says. “We already went over all the reasons why it makes no sense for Tenko-san to be the culprit.”

“But she could always be hiding something else,” Hoshi says. “Isn’t that what Ouma just said? Someone other than the killer might be keeping secrets.”

“Keeping secrets when my ass is on the line,” Iruma says. “Also,” her voice raises, “whoever the fuck you are thinking about yourself when Kiibs is the one we’re here for has a lot of fucking nerve.”

“Oh,” Shirogane presses her hands to her heart. “Iruma-san…”

Kaede turns to her, squaring her shoulders. “That’s right. No matter what problems we have with each other, this is about Kiibo-kun… and making sure we all live to another day.”

Hoshi fiddles with his cigarette. “So it is,” he says dully. 

Kaede frowns at him, as Tenko haltingly adds, “S-So where would be a good place to start? Tenko only waited outside, so she doesn’t know what happened in the program world…”

“Far as I get it,” Momota says, “whatever killed Kiibo happened to him in the program—if Chabashira was watching his body the whole time, it seems pretty fucking unlikely anything happened to him on the outside.”

“And that means we can rule out Momota, myself, and Chabashira as suspects,” Maki says. “Obviously none of us had anything to do with this.”

“Y-You can’t just make up a fucking alibi like that!” Iruma shouts. 

“Why not?” Maki says. “It’s true—we already confirmed as much.”

“W-Well, fine!” Iruma’s eyes dart around the room before landing on Kaede. “I was with boob-job the whole time—that means we have alibis, too, right Bakamatsu?”

Kaede pinches the bridge of her nose. “I guess, I mean,” she shakes her head. “Iruma-san and I were together for basically the entire time once we entered the program.”

“Basically?” Hoshi says. “Which means…”

“When we’d go through doors,” Kaede answers simply. “There would always be a brief moment we were apart, but that’s true for everyone in the program world because of how it was built.”

“That’s true, isn’t it,” Ouma says. “And Kiiboy’s murder would take more than a few seconds to complete.” He glances to Kaede out of the corner of his eye. “Speaking of which, just how was he killed? Doing in a robot has to be a bit trickier than slicing up a meatbag.”

“Wait,” Tenko says, frowning down at him. “You spent the entire investigation alone with Momota-san, and you didn’t read the Monokuma File?”

Momota quickly says, “No—we did, he’s just,” he coughs. “Just being an asshole or something, I guess.”

“Oooookay,” Ouma says, turning to him. “Soooo, Momota-chan, how do you think Kiiboy died?”

“Haven’t we already talked about this?” he asks. “Someone fucked with him in the program world?”

“That’s kind of vague…” Shirogane says. 

Maki rolls her eyes. “Why are we bothering questioning him? Iruma did an autopsy—ask her.”

Kaede says, “Iruma-san mostly just said that he suffered a shut down. I think the Monokuma File said it was sort of like if a person went into shock.”

“Yeah,” Iruma says. “I already explained this to you, assholes—if you throw yourself off a fucking building in the program, your brain’s gonna think you just did that and freak the fuck out when you hit the ground.”

“Ah,” says Shirogane. “So if you die in the game, you die in real life! Just like in that MMORPG that uses nerve gear! Although, that show’s really entry level…”

Momota ignores her. “Yeah, and didn’t Iruma say we could feel pain and shit, even if our avatars were indestructible?”

“And she also said we could die in the program,” Maki says. “It seems like someone decided to take advantage of that.”

Kaede bites her lip as her she glances towards Kiibo’s portrait. Above almost everything else, she still wonders why someone would possibly go after him, of all people. But her chain of thought is cut short as Hoshi says, “doesn’t all this mean that we don’t know the cause of death?”

“What?” Kaede asks.

“He was killed in the program, sure,” he says. “But how his killer went about doing that…”

Ouma cheers. “Is a mystery!” 

“The details are,” Kaede says. “But, from what Iruma-san’s told us, we can assume that he was probably killed… pretty normally.”

“Oh,” says Ouma with absolute wonder. “So, so, so—was he stabbed, beaten, drowned, strangled, electro—”

“Shut up,” Hoshi snaps. 

Ouma sniffles. “I… I was just trying to offer suggestions…”

“But,” Tenko says. “How would Kiibo-san’s killer even do any of those things? Didn’t Iruma-san say she removed everything dangerous?”

“Maybe that was a lie,” Maki says.

Iruma suddenly pales. “Wha—fuck—no!” she shouts. “I-I did remove everything!”

Ouma smiles. “Did you?”

“Yes!” she yells. 

Ouma continues to torment Iruma, leveling a rapid fire volley of accusations at her, his list of possible weapons getting increasingly ridiculous as Kaede thinks. She hadn’t explored the entirety of the virtual world, and she knows Iruma kept her secrets about many parts of it, but… was there anything dangerous?

_(Present your Argument)_

“So, Iruma-chan!” Ouma starts. “What did you leave in the program?”

“Nothing!” Iruma shouts back. “It was emptier than your pea sized skull!”

“Were there knives, or hammers, or saws?” Ouma lists.

Maki adds, “no one knew the virtual world better than you—you could have easily hidden something.”

“Or swords, or attack dogs, or wild bears?”

“Kiibo-kun’s body was in the library,” Shirogane says. “So if there was a weapon, it was probably in there…”

“Or spears, or tasers, or poison?”

“When me and Ouma were looking around the library,” Momota adds. “I don’t remember seeing anything dangerous in there.”

“Or maybe they just used a pillow and smothered him!”

Iruma shouts, “For the last fucking time—there was nothing that could be used as a weapon! Do you think I’m an idiot!?”

Hoshi sighs. “You’re really going to ask Ouma that question?”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait,” Kaede says. “Kaito, that’s right! I remember during the investigation, it was really strange that there wasn’t anything that looked like it could have been a murder weapon in the library.”

“There wasn’t because I fucking took out all that shit!” Iruma says. “Do you all get off on hearing me repeat myself?”

“Nothing in the library that could be a murder weapon,” Ouma muses. “Is that right…”

“Of course not,” Maki says. “It doesn’t matter how many times Iruma says there were no weapons—Kiibo was obviously killed using something.”

Hoshi stares at the ground, an odd expression on his face. “What if… we’re looking at this wrong? What if Kiibo wasn’t murdered?”

Momota frowns. “What are you talking about? He was killed—”

“He could have committed suicide,” Hoshi says suddenly. 

Kaede’s mouth forms a thin, tight line. “We did talk about that possibility earlier.”

“I remember that, but,” Shirogane says, shaking her head. “I still don’t believe that possible. The laws of robotics wouldn’t allow it.”

Momota frowns. “The fuck are the laws of robotics?”

“Uh, well,” Kaede says, wary of Shirogane rattling off another speech. “Basically they boil down to the idea that a robot wouldn’t purposefully harm itself.”

“And if Kiibo-kun follows the laws of robotics then him committing suicide is plainly impossible!” Shirogane asserts.

“ _No_ ,” Iruma suddenly asserts, jabbing a finger at Shirogane. “Kiibs committing suicide is impossible because he—” she cuts her self off, and her hand curls into a fist. “He just… fucking promised me we’d do shit when we got out of here…”

Kaede turns to her, “That’s right,” she says. “I remember him saying that, and it would be odd for him to do such a thing if he was intending to die.”

“What if he discovered something?” Maki says plainly. “Something that made him want to die?”

“Huh?” Kaede says.

“Harukawa,” Hoshi says lowly. “What are you trying to say?”

“What…” Tenko breathes out. “What could Kiibo-san—what could anyone have found that would have made them want to die?”

Maki pauses before turning away from them. “The reason we went into the virtual world in the first place was to find clues about the outside world, right? So maybe Kiibo found something…”

“The clue to the outside world would make Kiibo-san kill himself?” Tenko asks, near horrified.

“N-No,” Iruma says, voice shaking. “That’s bullshit—that has to be bullshit! H-Hey! Titless, why the fuck are you lying to me about Kiibo!?”

“Actually, Iruma-san,” Kaede says. “I think the real question is why does Harukawa-san sound so sure about that.”

Momota looks at her, expression unreadable. “Hey, Harumaki, if you know something you can tell us, okay? We know you’re not the culprit.”

“Do we know that?” Ouma asks darkly. “Because Harukawa-chan was acting very strangely in the program world before Kiiboy’s murder, right, Shirogane-chan?”

“Ah,” Shirogane shoots a nervous look towards Maki. “That is true… Harukawa-san and I were supposed to investigate together, and then she suddenly left.”

“And that’s why you and Kiibo came down to the basement later,” Hoshi says. “It was just the two of you, and you were trying to meet up with everyone.”

Tenko says, “Tenko doesn’t know what Harukawa-san was doing in the program, but she just logged out though, right?”

“She left Shirogane-chan alone without a word to suddenly leave the program for no reason,” says Ouma. “When you put it like that, Harukawa-chan seems super-duper innocent, huh?”

“But she didn’t do anything,” Momota says. “She logged out, and we spent the whole time talking—she has a fucking alibi, end of story.”

Tenko nods, though seems rather unsure of herself as she says, “Kiibo-san was killed inside the virtual world, and Harukawa-san was definitely outside of it when that happened, so she has to be innocent…”

“No,” Ouma says. “Not necessarily.”

“What are you talking about?” Maki asks darkly. “I was outside the pro—”

“And Kiiboy was in, but,” his smile twists into something cruel. “If you set a trap inside the program, you could kill him while you were on the outside?”

“Trap?” Kaede echoes.

Momota shakes his head. “No—no that’s not possible. Harumaki was with us the whole—”

“She wasn’t,” Hoshi says. “She stayed back when we went to the roof, and Ouma went outside.” 

Tenko blinks, and parrots perhaps the oddest part of that statement to Kaede. “Ouma-san went outside?”

“I did!” he responds happily. “I went to go explore!”

Again Tenko says, “Ouma-san went outside when everyone else went to the roof…” she furrows her brow. “Uh—um, K-Kaede-san told Tenko-san this happened pretty early on when everyone entered the program…”

Kaede raises an eyebrow, all too aware she’s lying, as she backs up her story, “That’s right—is there something wrong with that, though?”

Tenko frowns again, looking down in confusion as she says, “Did Ouma-san actually go outside?”

Ouma looks up at her, mild curiosity on his face before he says, “You’re making an interesting point, Chabashira-chan, but we should talk about that later—now’s not the time.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Iruma asks.

“It means, now’s the time to grill Harukawa-chan until she confesses!” he says. “Duh!”

“I didn’t kill Kiibo,” Maki says dully. “Being alone for five seconds doesn’t change that.”

“That’s right,” Momota says. “And I’ll say it a hundred times if I have to—the fact that she was outside of the program has nothing to do with Kiibo! I believe in Harumaki, and I believe she would never just try to kill someone to escape.”

Maki gives him an odd look. “That’s right,” she says, even as her tone holds almost no confidence in her words. “I wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Then what were you doing outside of the program?” Iruma asks. “Did you log out just to get freaky with spacecase?”

Maki jerks her head towards her. “Do you want me to kill you?”

Iruma retreats, as Kaede bites her lip, going over the possibilities before her. 

_(Present your Argument)_

“Tenko can confirm that Harukawa-san was logged out of the program when Kiibo-san died,” Tenko says. “However, she did not tell Tenko why…”

“She did it on purpose,” Ouma adds. “So it wasn’t a weird, freak thing like what happened with Momota-chan.” His face darkens. “It was a premeditated act to carry out her evil plan.”

Maki rolls her eyes. “I didn’t have an ‘evil plan.’”

“Then you can tell us what you were doing,” Ouma insists. “If you have nothing to hide, you’ll tell us, right Harumaki-chan?”

“Ouma,” Momota says. “Leave her alone—she told me what she was doing, and it’s nothing strange.”

“Then you tell us what it was, dickhead!” Iruma says.

Tenko adds in a softer voice, “Momota-san didn’t tell Tenko what he was doing outside the program either…”

_(BREAK)_

“Kaito,” Kaede says. “You just said Harukawa-san told you why she logged out, right?”

He frowns. “Yeah… it’s what we were talking about, but it’s really not a prob—”

“Then you knew she was trying to kill Ouma-kun,” Kaede says.

A harsh silence falls over the room, and Momota just stares at her, struck dumb. 

His speechlessness is enough to confirm her suspicious, and Kaede presses forward. “Tenko-san told me that she sensed a killing intent coming from Harukawa-san when she logged out, and that it was directed towards Ouma-kun.”

“Chabashira doesn’t know anything,” Maki snaps. “There’s no reason to believe—”

“She’s the only person I can believe,” Kaede says. “And we agreed we’d trust in her word.”

Maki says, “She’s an overly emotional idiot who—”

“Tenko knows what she felt,” she says coldly. “Maybe her emotions haven’t been as clear lately, but she knows what happened, and—and,” her voice twists into something angry, “and how _dare_ you tell Tenko that she doesn’t know her own feelings.”

“I’d put faith in Tenko-san’s ability to read emotions before almost anything else,” Kaede says. “And if she says that she sensed you were attempting to kill Ouma-kun, then I believe her.”

“And that _is_ what Tenko felt,” Tenko says. “There is no doubt.”

“Well, obviously I didn’t kill Ouma,” Maki spits back. “So you can stop with your meaningless deductions. If you think you’re cornering me into anything, you’re delusional.”

“Ah, wait,” Shirogane says, shooting increasingly fearful glances towards Maki. “I have a question—if Harukawa-san left the program world because she intended to… to kill Ouma-kun, does that mean she was planning to fight Chabashira-san?”

Ouma hums, seemingly undisturbed by the revelations floating around him as he rocks on his heels. “Oooh, that would be something—a duel between Harukawa-chan and Chabashira-chan, especially since Harukawa-chan herself said it would be silly to try such a thing.”

“She did,” Hoshi says. “Which I suppose is just more evidence that she was thinking about it from the get-go. If it matters,” he fiddles with his cigarette, staring intently at it rather than anyone hanging on his words, “Chabashira’s been skipping meals lately, meaning she’s been undernourished and low on energy—if Harukawa was planning to fight her, now would be the best time.”

Momota throws his hands on the air. “What kind of bullshit deduction is that!? There’s no way Harumaki was tracking something like that! And,” he slams his hands down on the front of his podium. “In case you’ve all fucking forgotten, the victim is Kiibo—maybe Harumaki was thinking about doing something for, like, five seconds, but that doesn’t mean she’s the killer.”

Kaede looks at him and finds herself feeling frustrated over everything else. “So you don’t deny that she was planning to kill. Is that what you two were talking about?”

“That would explain why they did not want Tenko to hear,” Tenko adds. “And also… it is a possible explanation for why Momota-san agreed to protect Ouma-san.”

Ouma’s smile isn’t bright or childish like the one Kaede has seen him wear in the face of horror so many times before. Instead, if Kaede didn’t know better, she’d almost label it as melancholy or, perhaps, remorseful. He says, “That certainly is one possibility. Momota-chan protected me to protect Harukawa-chan. It’s almost funny how much Harukawa-chan needs to be saved from herself. I wonder what would happen if she didn’t have Momota-chan around to tell her what to do.”

Maki gives him a look of pure death. “I can still kill you, you know.”

He shrugs. “But you won’t as long as Momota-chan’s around. Because what happened,” he smiles, “is that Harukawa-chan logged out of the program to come after me, but stopped when she saw Momota-chan who scolded her and hit her on the nose with a newspaper until she calmed down. The end!”

“Ha!” Iruma suddenly blurts out. “Guess Whore-ukawa really is spacecase’s bitch!”

“And I can kill you, too,” Maki says darkly.

“Eeeeey!” Iruma shrieks. “I-I w-was just—”

“Shutting up,” Maki says. “If you want to keep all of your limbs, that is.”

“And that’s the end of this!” Momota shouts. “Harumaki almost did something, but she didn’t, and she’s not fucking responsible for what happened!” 

Kaede stares hard at him, and she asks as evenly as she can, “Why did she try to kill Ouma-kun? You know the answer to that, too, don’t you?”

Momota looks at her, clenching his jaw. He pauses too long, before finally saying, “reason doesn’t matter. And…” his eyes dart to Maki and then pointedly away again. “And she promised not to try anything again, so none of this matters.”

“There’s one problem I have with just dismissing Harukawa as suspicious,” Hoshi says. 

Momota shakes his head, muttering under his breath. “Fucking hell… She didn’t do it…”

“Harukawa had the keycard to access the motive,” Hoshi says plainly. “Far as we know, she’s the only one who could have seen it. Even if she wasn’t acting sketchy, that alone should be enough to make her a suspect.”

“That is true,” Kaede says. “Harukawa-san did—”

“No,” Maki answers. “The motive doesn’t matter.”

“Someone’s a liar,” Ouma says in a sing-song voice. “So, real question: when did you look at the motive? Ooh, ooh! And how super cool was it that it caused you to murder Kiiboy in cold blood?”

She scowls. “The motive is stupid, and I never even saw Kiibo in the simulation after we split up.” She crosses her arms. “My brief intentions to end your miserable existence and stop this game had nothing to do with Kiibo’s murder.”

Kaede frowns. “‘Stop this game?’ Harukawa-san… do you think Ouma-kun is—”

Momota cuts in, “He’s not, and it doesn’t matter. So let’s just fucking talk about something else.”

Kaede turns to him as she fiddles with her hat. Attempting to convince him to stop protecting Maki is likely a lost cause, especially since the girl in question being a generally suspicious person and Kaede’s own distaste for her are rather removed from being concrete evidence. And, of course, how Kiibo factors into anything described is far, far out of reach of any logic Kaede finds herself able to throw together at the moment.

Momota’s still staring at her, eyes silently pleading, as Kaede finally says, “Fine—there’s more to discuss anyway. So,” she sighs and turns back to face the group as a whole. “Does anyone else have a question—it might jumpstart a new conversation.” 

“Yeah, I’ve fucking got a question,” Iruma says. “The hell does flat-chest mcstabby get off on saying Kiibs found something that would have made him commit suicide?”

“Ah, that’s right!” Shirogane says. “Earlier, Harukawa-san was really confident when she brought up that possibility.”

Maki shakes her head. “It was simply a theory—don’t put too much stock into it.”

“We should still think about it,” Hoshi says with a sigh. “And another thing to consider: the whole damn reason we went into the virtual world.”

“The clues about the outside world, and something that would cause Kiibo-kun to take his own life,” Kaede says. “Do you think there’s a connection between those two things, too, Hoshi-kun?”

To the ground he says, “Just saying no one here’s spoken up about finding what we were looking for, and also no one else ended up dead while everyone had an alibi.” He shrugs. “Maybe my logic’s out of order, but it just makes sense to me.”

Though Hoshi isn’t fighting particularly hard for his argument, Kaede finds herself furrowing her brow as she thinks over his words and all the testimonies she had heard before. 

_(Present your Argument)_

“In the program,” Shirogane says hesitantly. “Did Kiibo-kun find the secret of the outside world? And then… did he decide he didn’t want to live anymore…”

“Bullshit!” Iruma shouts. “Kiibs’s a team player—he woulda fucking said something if he found it!”

“Would anyone here keep something that important secret?” Momota asks. “It’s the whole fucking reason we went into Iruma’s shitty world in the first place.”

Ouma chirps, “I dunno—would anyone here possibly do something that devious?”

“Question fucking retracted,” Momota says completely deadpan.

“But even if someone did find it,” Shirogane says. “What were we even looking for? Do we have any idea what the clue to the outside world even is?”

“We should ask Harukawa-chan!” Ouma says. “She found it, after all! Right before she killed Kiiboy, too!”

“Is there a rule against committing murder at a class trial?” Maki asks.

Momota sounds almost tired as he says, “No one’s fucking killing anyone…”

_(BREAK)_

“No, Shirogane-san,” Kaede says. “I think we did find the clue to the outside world earlier. Do you remember? There was a Flashback Light in the basement, though it seemed like it had already been used when we tried to turn it on.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Shirogane says. “But I guess that means that someone did really just find it and keep it a secret, though I don’t know why anyone would do that…”

“Could be what Harukawa was talking about earlier,” Hoshi says. “Maybe it’s a truth we’re better off not knowing.”

Kaede fiddles with the brim of her hat, choosing her words carefully before saying, “Even if that is the case—which I hope it’s not—this might be a pretty important clue to discover what happened to Kiibo-kun, especially since it’s clear someone used it but is keeping quiet.”

Iruma snaps her fingers. “So all we need to do is figure out who used the Fleshback Light, and then vote for their ass!”

Hoshi shrugs. “Makes sense to me.”

“Uh—hey, wait,” Momota says suddenly. “I’m not gonna try and say that the Flashback Light or whatever isn’t related, but couldn’t this be some of that shit Ouma was talking about earlier? Like people just lying or hiding crap for different reasons?”

Tenko voices aloud the accusation rolling through Kaede’s head. “Momota-san… that sounds very suspicious. Did you—”

“No,” he says. “I’m just thinking about it—can’t a guy fucking throw out theories without being accused of murder?”

“Not at a class trial, my dear Momota-chan,” Ouma answers. “Here, everything you say can and should be used against you because one of us isn’t trying to find the culprit, or perhaps,” his smile stretches to almost split his face in half, “in this case, more than one of us.”

“More than one of us?” Kaede echoes. “Ouma-kun, you’re saying there’s someone else here besides the killer who wants us to get it wrong?”

He presses a finger to his lips. “Of course,” he answers. “Would I lie to you guys?”

“You always say that right before lying,” Maki says. “And,” like a light switch, her face flickers from banal to something predatory. “Why don’t you tell us exactly what your alibi is since you seem so intent on talking down to us?”

Ouma taps a finger to his chin. “Me? Why do I need an alibi? I’m as innocent as can be.”

“That’s not an answer…” Shirogane mumbles.

“As far as Tenko understands it from what Kaede-san told her,” she says. “After Momota-san’s strange log out, Ouma-san was left alone in the program world.”

“So I was!” he answers cheerily before suddenly descending into sniffles. “Seeing my beloved Momota-chan just vanish before my eyes… whoever made him disappear is so mean!”

Hoshi says, “Can’t say when Momota left, but Ouma did come back out of the library alone.” He lowers his hat. “That also means he was at the scene of the crime by himself—and we don’t know how long for.”

“Oh, I get it,” Iruma snarls, jabbing a finger in Ouma’s direction. “After closet case fucked off, that little abortion sabotaged the library to kill Kiibo!”

“Wait, hey,” Momota cuts in. “Just saying Ouma sabotaged some crap is pretty fucking vague, right?”

Maki glares. “Why are you defending him?”

“That’s a good question, Harukawa-chan!” Ouma cheers. “Why is Momota-chan helping me out? Could it be that he believes in—”

“Yes,” Momota says suddenly. 

His answer manages to catch both of them off guard, and Ouma and Maki ask, “What?” at the same time.

Kaede says, “Kaito, what do you mean? Do you trust Ouma-kun?”

“I thought you two wanted to rip each other’s heads off?” Iruma says. “D-Did one night of passion really turn things around that much!?”

Momota lets out a sigh as he runs a hand through his hair. Before anything else, he breathes out, “Shut up, Iruma.”

“H-Hey! I only—”

“Iruma-chan,” Ouma says sweetly. “Momota-chan asked you to keep your filthy mouth shut, okay?”

She falters again and begins to mumble more excuses to herself as Maki says, “Momota—you’re going to explain yourself to me right now.”

Momota pauses again before shaking his head. “Don’t get me wrong—Ouma’s still a fucking asshole, but… I’ve decided he’s not our enemy, and I’m gonna believe in him. And, if that screws us over, then it’s no one’s fault but my own, but right now it’s the only thing I can do. So,” he looks up with something close to renewed determination. “For now, I’m gonna believe.”

And perhaps the strangest thing is how unsurprised Ouma suddenly seems. “Can’t say I ever remember a time when someone decided to say something like that to a liar like me, but,” he grins. “I guess it makes sense given Momota-chan’s position. And,” he flickers back to his cheery, sing-song voice, “It looks like my Momota-chan really is a standup kinda guy! At least, when he’s able to stand up that is.”

Maki’s hands tighten into fists. “If you’re blackmailing him, I will kill you right now.”

“Harumaki, it’s fine,” Momota says trying to smile at her. “I wouldn’t be much of a man if I couldn’t handle my own mistakes.”

Nothing about his words seem console her, and Maki responds in the same tight voice. “Why are you acting this way?”

“Well, Harumaki-chan,” Ouma says. “You and Momota-chan are pretty good friends, and not even the best of friends tell each other every—”

“This is a class trial,” Hoshi intones coldly. “If we need to interrogate Momota, we will.”

“And we don’t,” Maki says. “So this conversation is over.”

Kaede straightens her shoulders as she prepares to cut in. “Actually, it’s not because Kaito and Ouma-kun are both still really suspicious.”

Momota frowns. “Kaede, if you’re saying that because I disappeared or whatever, I already told you I have no idea why the fuck that happened.”

“And I believe that,” she says. “Tenko-san basically confirmed as much for me during the investigation.”

“That is true,” Tenko says. “When Tenko went to help Momota-san, he seemed to almost be in a panic about getting back into the program. Tenko does not think he was just acting.”

“Because I had no idea what the fuck was going on!” he announces. “If anything that just makes me less suspicious, doesn’t it?”

Shirogane quietly adds, “I… don’t think that makes sense…”

“But that’s not my point,” Kaede says. “My point is that you and Ouma-kun were the only people in the library before Kiibo-kun arrived and was killed.”

“That’s just a coincidence,” Momota says. “And Kaede—what the hell is with this?” There’s something almost hurt in his expression that makes Kaede’s throat tighten even as she refuses to back down. “Do you… do you really think I did it?”

“You don’t have to answer any of her questions,” Maki says. “You don’t need to tell anyone anything.”

“No,” he says. “If Kaede doubts me she should clear her doubts, but, fuck…” 

Kaede does let her gaze falter to stare at a place slightly to the side of his face then. “There’s really just one thing that’s been bothering me, but… as soon as I get an answer to that, I can decide for sure whether or not to suspect you. I,” she hugs her arm. “I am sorry for this, Kaito, I do want to believe in you, but…” and Kaede stops herself from saying just how little she trusts perhaps the first person to have faith in her since Saihara died. 

But for as nice and supportive as Momota has been since the very beginning, Kaede can’t look at him without doubt. 

Then Ouma suddenly cuts through her thoughts, saying, “Momota-chan’s not a killer, but let’s hear what Akamatsu-chan has to say. I have a feeling it will be important as we move forward towards a real suspect.”

Iruma snorts. “Sticking up for your fuck buddy?”

Ouma practically twirls around. “Of course! If Momota-chan believes in me, then I’ll believe in him—I’m all about paying people back, you know. Soooo,” he turns to Kaede. “Give me your best shot, Akamatsu-chan!”

Hoshi says, “Isn’t Momota the one who should be arguing?” as the room then devolves into chatter, and Kaede knows that now is the time to finally catch someone in their lie.

_(Present your Argument)_

“I’m a suspect,” Momota says. “Because I was in the library with Ouma before the murder, right?”

“That means Ouma’s a suspect, too,” Maki adds. 

Iruma shouts, “You fucking tried to kill the shota—sit your ass down!”

“We’re suspect buddies because no one else was in the library before Kiiboy,” Ouma says. “Buuut, neither of us were there when he actually died, soooo…”

“Tenko thinks maybe one of them could have set a trap or something,” she says. “But it’s hard to believe two people—even if it’s two boys—would work together to kill someone.”

“The two of them were alone for a while,” Hoshi says. “So if that is what happened, they had the time and opportunity to do it.”

“Yeah, well,” Momota says. “We didn’t do anything in the library besides talk and look for clues or whatever.”

Shirogane adds, “I did find the Flashback Light in the room next to the library, so… I actually don’t know if that supports if they’re innocent or not.”

Ouma gasps. “The Flashback Light was right in the next room!? Aw, boo! And we spent so long looking for it, too!”

Tenko scoffs. “Boys might be terrible at paying attention, but were you even listening? We already discussed that!”

“Ooh,” he says. “So we did!”

_(BREAK)_

Kaede takes a deep breath. “Kaito—you said you and Ouma-kun didn’t do anything in the library besides talk, right?”

“Yeah,” he answers. “I told you that during the investigation, too, didn’t I?”

“You did,” she says. “And it bothered me then because… it just doesn’t match with the scene of the crime.”

Momota frowns, and Kaede swears she sees him start to sweat. “Okay, so maybe the room was a little messed up—that’s just what you do when you’re looking for shit, right?”

Hoshi says, “It looked like there had been a fight.”

“Then Kiibo fought with his killer,” Maki snaps. “That’s the most obvious—”

“Kiibo-kun was alone in the library for seconds at most,” Kaede says. “Hoshi-kun, Ouma-kun, and Shirogane-san can all confirm that.”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “Hoshi-kun followed after him, but he came back very shortly afterwards… it probably wouldn’t have been enough time to have a fight, especially in a place so far away from the body.”

Maki spits, “Kiibo wasn’t even there.” She turns her glare on Kaede. “Even if there was a fight, it has nothing to do with the murder—all of this is irrelevant.”

“That is true…” Tenko says. “If Kiibo-san was not there, then what would they have been doing to make the crime scene look like there had been a fight?”

Iruma cackles, “Well I can tell you what they _weren’t_ doing.”

Ouma just stares blankly for a moment before folding his arms behind his head. “You know, I actually think Harukawa-chan is right. None of this is really important.”

“I would like to believe that,” Kaede says. “But the fact that it happened in the room where Kiibo-kun was attacked just can’t be a coincidence.”

“Bzzt!” Ouma says. “Wrong! It is just a coincidence—now back to Kiiboy—”

“I know you’re just going to lie,” Kaede says. “But there’s obviously a secret here, and if you want me to drop it, I’m going to have to hear it from Kaito. So,” she turns to Momota to see him gripping the front of his podium and looking at the ground. “I don’t want to think you’d hurt Kiibo-kun, but you have to tell me now why you’ve been acting the way you have. What happened in the library and why did—”

And Momota’s head snaps up as he says, “I tried to kill Ouma,” so fast Kaede thinks she dreamed the words for a second.

Absolute silence falls over the room, and Kaede can only stare at him in shock.

Momota lets out a shaky breath as everyone collectively fails to take in his confession. Kaede barely hears Ouma say very softly, and mostly to himself, “you didn’t need to tell them.”

But he keeps going, showing Kaede the truth she had been pushing so hard for. “It was fucking stupid, and I barely did anything, and I regretted it immediately, and it ended with Ouma fucking feeling sorry for me,” he says, voice labored with deep a self-hatred Kaede never could have imagined him possessing. “The only thing that happened is I knocked some books off the shelf like an idiot and shoved Ouma against a different shelf before he talked me down…”

Kaede shakes her head, trying to possibly process what she’s hearing. “Is—is that tru—”

“Why?” Maki suddenly asks. “Why are you telling them anything?”

Momota blinks at her. “Harumaki, wha—”

“Just shut up,” she says. “Just shut up and stop making things worse for yourself.”

“Harumaki,” Momota lets out a humorless laugh. “The hell are you trying to protect a hypocrite like me for? After all the crap I said to you, you should be more pissed off at me than anyone else.”

Maki stares hard at him for a moment, before turning away sharply. Kaede watches her then turns to Ouma only a trial stand away to see him just staring forward almost vacantly. 

Kaede swallows before she decides to ask her own question, “But why? Why would you do something like that?”

He goes silent again, and Kaede thinks he isn’t going to answer at all when he finally says, “I thought… I thought he was the mastermind. After everything Harumaki said, and everything we talked about I felt I had to, but… I still couldn’t go through with it.” 

Their conversations that had stretched on and on about saving everyone run through Kaede’s head as she just stares at him, and the question _did I talk someone into murder?_ burns bright and painfully in her mind.

Then Ouma says coldly, “Momota-chan’s not a killer. And none of this,” he looks directly at Kaede. “Has anything to do with Kiiboy’s death.”

Beside him, Tenko hesitantly asks, “H-How can you be so certain?”

“Because Kiiboy barely has anything to do with Kiiboy’s death,” Ouma answers plainly. “Because the real truth behind this case is that almost everyone here is capable of murder.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And chapter 4 trial has begun! I want to take a moment also here to give a huge thanks to everyone who has been commenting and say that even if I don't reply to every comment (especially lately since I've been kinda pressed for time between school work and writing this fic, haha) know that I read and adore every single one! You guys are the greatest!


	25. Trial VIII

Ouma’s words seem to almost cast a spell over them. Or perhaps it’s Momota’s confession or Maki’s seething rage ready to bite the head off of anyone who says another word against them.

No matter the cause, however, Kaede finds herself gripping the edges of her podium as the implications of everything she strove to unveil comes rushing up to her. Before his death, Saihara had told her why he was so afraid of the truth—why he had allowed himself to die rather than facing it again. Kaede had understood his fears only from a distance, but now they surround her, asking if she’s proud of herself and everything she’s accomplished by dragging out someone’s secrets into the light.

She’s too caught up in thinking how all of this, everything about this entire case, about the entire game, is her fault to say anything.

Then Iruma shouts, “As if you _fucking_ know anything!”

Kaede snaps her head up to see Iruma practically trembling with anger on the other side of the room. “Iruma-san?”

“Hmm?” Ouma says, sparing Iruma a glance. “Did you say something?”

“I said shut the fuck up!” she screams. “I said—” she leans forward over her podium, thrusting a finger in his direction, absolute fury in her eyes, “That you don’t fucking know anything about Kiibo, you miserable little prick!”

“Ah, Iruma-san,” Shirogane says. “Do you know something about Kiibo-kun’s death?”

She scowls and casts a pointed glare over Ouma, Maki, and Momota in turn before huffing and crossing her arms. “I know the three stooges apparently all have egos bigger than my tits if they’re trying to make Kiibs fucking _dying_ about themselves.”

“You’re saying their testimonies aren’t important?” Hoshi questions.

“I’m saying,” Iruma begins. “I don’t fucking feel like taking the time to throw the twunk-wannabe a pity party when someone here tried to kill Kiibo.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “I get that you’re all brainless enough to buy into the crap horseshit says about Kiibs not counting as a person, but if you think he didn’t matter at all, then, then—” she gestures wildly, obviously trying to think of an appropriate threat, “Then I’ll fucking lick you until you cry!”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “That would be… pretty gross…”

Tenko says, “Tenko does not know what Ouma-san truly meant, but… Tenko also believes that acting like Kiibo-san did not matter to fight amongst each other…” she shakes her head. “Tenko is tired of people saying her friends’ deaths don’t matter, and she refuses to let it happen to anyone else!”

Ouma raises an eyebrow at her, contemplating the situation rather distantly as he says, “Your platitude are nice and all, and, well,” he grins, folding his arms behind his head. “If you want to ignore my help and go off on the wrong track, who am I to stop you? Soooo,” he beams, “have lots of fun!”

“I thought I told you to shut your fucking mouth!” Iruma shouts. “The next time you even think about saying Kiibs was just a useless robot, and everything’s just about your threesome fuckbuddies, I’m gonna stomp over there and kick your fucking teeth in!”

Ouma starts sniffling. “Why are you being so mean to me? I already said you could just do whatever you want… and I’ve already been through so much today with people trying to kill me, a-and, and,” his sniffling escalates into ear shatteringly loud sobs, “Waahhhh! Iruma-chan’s a bully!!!”

“Shut up,” Maki snaps.

Yet at her words, Momota sighs and returns to staring at the ground, seemingly too ashamed of himself to argue. To the floor he says, “But… Iruma’s got a fucking point—I did a lot of stupid shit, but this isn’t about me or Harumaki or Ouma—”

“Ouma could still be the culprit,” Maki says sharply.

“Oooh,” Ouma says, suddenly cheerful again. “Could I?”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Why do you sound excited about that?”

Momota says, “Ouma’s not the culprit.” He runs a hand over his face. “Haven’t we already been over this?”

“No,” Hoshi says. “If anything, someone’s been steering us away from it.” He shakes his head. “Guess it makes sense why Momota’s been protecting him now though.”

Iruma points an accusatory finger at him. “You were gonna try and guilt us into the wrong vote just so your fucking boytoy could get away with murdering Kiibs!?”

Momota rolls his eyes. “I take it back—Iruma doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.”

“Then allow me to clarify,” Maki says. “Momota’s not the culprit—that much is obvious, but Ouma’s still suspicious since he was in the library by himself after Momota got logged out.”

“Harumaki,” Momota says, sounding almost completely exhausted. “I get why you’re accusing him, but just trust me, okay?” he sighs again. “It’s not Ouma—he talks a lot of shit, but he’d never actually do anything.”

“You have any proof of that?” Hoshi asks. “Or is this just a hunch?”

“Neither,” he says. “Maybe I didn’t investigate so I don’t have evidence, but I already said I believe in Ouma, and after the shit I pulled, I’m not going to just fucking go back on that.”

“So it is out of guilt,” Tenko says softly, eyes not so subtly darting down to Ouma standing vacantly beside her. “Momota-san—”

“Don’t call me an idiot and don’t fucking tell me I’m wrong,” Momota snaps. “I get it if you guys can’t trust me, but I’m not backing down on this.”

Kaede frowns. Ouma and Maki are both silent, and she knows that if they possibly want to move the conversation forward, it has to be her. “Then let’s stop just accusing each other,” Kaede says, “and actually try and figure out one of the puzzles surrounding Kiibo-kun’s death.”

Her suggestion is briefly meant with silence—though not a hostile one—before Hoshi says, “and which puzzle do you suggest we start with?”

“Um, Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “If you do not mind, Tenko has a question that’s been bothering her for a while.”

Kaede nods, fairly certain Tenko is one of the few people who will not immediately turn the conversation back to finger pointing. “Alright, what is it?”

“Well,” she says, “We’ve talked a lot about how Momota-san was strangely logged out of the program world, but Tenko doesn’t think we’ve actually established how that happened.” She bites her lip. “Tenko just thinks it’s very strange because she didn’t see anything physically happen to him on the outside beforehand.”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “I’d actually like to know the answer to that as well. Maybe his synchronization score was so low that the program wouldn’t respond to him at all.”

“I don’t know about that,” Kaede says. “But this does seem like a good place to start.”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “Yeah—hate to say this, ‘cause I wanna know what the fuck happened, but there’s not much I can tell you that we haven’t gone over already in… detail, I guess.”

Ouma finally speaks up saying, “Me and Momota-chan were chatting, and then a shiny circle appeared around his feet like when you log out at the phone.”

“But can we really trust either of you?” Hoshi says. “After everything we’ve talked about, it’s pretty safe to say they could just be lying for each other—maybe Momota did it on purpose.”

Tenko frowns. “Tenko doubts it—Momota-san was pretty panicked, and also Tenko doesn’t think he would even know enough about computers to do something like that.”

“Hey!” Momota shouts. “I know shit about technology and crap! Just not Iruma’s stupid program!”

“I’m pretty sure it was someone else that caused Kaito to get logged out,” Kaede says. “And I think I have a theory about what happened, too, and if I’m right about this, it should hopefully clear him of all suspicion.”

“Then get on with it,” Maki says. “Are you trying to impress us by dragging everything out?”

Momota says, “Harumaki—let her talk. After all,” he laughs humorlessly. “I’ve got nothing left to hide.”

Maki pauses before saying to Kaede, “Fine—just don’t screw it up, Akamatsu.”

Kaede frowns as she fiddles with the brim of Saihara’s hat. “I don’t intend to, Harukawa-san—all I want is to find the truth behind this case and end things as soon as possible.”

“Then hurry up already if you’re so sure you have the answer,” Maki says.

Kaede barely resists rolling her eyes as she takes a breath instead to center herself and listen to the others talking around her.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Tenko still isn’t sure,” Tenko says, “why Momota-san was logged out of the program world.”

“Maybe there was a glitch,” Maki says. “It was just a coincidence.”

“But the timing was strange,” Hoshi says. “Momota logged out right before Harukawa, right? There’s a chance they were planning something together.”

“Nope!” Ouma says. “No chance!”

Shirogane adds, “I was in the entrance hall after Harukawa-san logged out, and I didn’t see anyone go past. Hoshi-kun and Ouma-kun were also down in the basement, so I plainly doubt that Momota-kun could have just walked to the phone.”

“And also the fact that I keep saying that I never fucking went to the salon,” Momota says.

“W-Well,” Iruma says. “The phone’s the only fucking way out of the program, so obviously dickless had to have used it to get out! A-And that is the only possibility!”

Ouma stage whispers, “Akamatsu-chan, someone’s lying!”

“M-Maybe he hacked the system from the inside!” Iruma says quickly. “O-Obviously it had to be something like that!”

“Geeze,” Ouma says. “I wonder what it could be…”

_(BREAK)_

Iruma’s already sweating when Kaede pinches the bridge of her nose and says, “Iruma-san, you already told me yourself that you can veto people logging out of the program world from inside of it. You’re going to have to give me a very good explanation if you want me to believe you really have no idea what happened.”

“W-Well,” Iruma stutters. “S-See—sh-shit’s fucking complicated, y’know?”

Momota glares at her. “So it was you! What the fuck, Iruma?!”

Maki sighs. “Of course—it’s so obvious.”

“Huh?” Ouma says. “If it was so obvious, why didn’t you say so earlier, Harumaki-chan?”

She scowls, her eyes practically glowing. “I see—you and Iruma want to die, is that it?”

Tenko speaks up, “Tenko thinks we should let Iruma-san explain herself before we move on to discuss anything else.”

“I’d like to hear her reasons, too,” Hoshi says. “And also how she even did something like that.”

Iruma’s eyes dart between her accusers, her earlier, angry, confidence, fading fast. “W-What are you virgins talking about? I-I never said any of that crap! Whatever shit Bakamatsu’s saying is obviously as fake as her tits!”

“That’s the argument you’re going with?” Shirogane asks. “But why would Akamatsu-san lie?”

“I don’t fucking know!” Iruma shouts, throwing her hands in the air. “Maybe she’s the killer!”

Kaede glares. “Iruma-san, we were together literally the entire time—it’s impossible for me to be the killer.”

“A-And that means it’s also impossible for me to have done any of the crap you’re accusing me of!” she shouts back.

“I’ve had enough of this nonsense,” Maki says. “I think it’s safe to say Iruma is somehow responsible for logging Momota out of the program, but I also doubt she’s the killer—does anyone here actually think Iruma, of all people, could convincingly lie long enough to last in a trial without breaking down?”

Tenko adds, “Tenko also does not believe that Iruma-san would harm Kiibo-san—perhaps it is naïve, but Tenko believes that alone is enough to dismiss her of suspicion.”

Momota sighs. “Gotta agree with that. I mean, I think Iruma’d try shit, but she’d probably fuck it up—”

“Hey!” Iruma shouts. “Fuck you! I could totally kill a bitch if I wanted to! N-Not that I did!”

“—and I doubt she’d do anything to Kiibo,” he finishes. “‘Specially after her whole speech earlier about how special he is.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “Alright, but even if Iruma-san’s not the culprit, she’s still suspicious if she purposefully logged someone out. I noticed that when we were together it seemed like Iruma-san kept fiddling with something in her pocket—if she had the ability to log someone out remotely, I think she probably did it one of those times.”

“Hmm,” Ouma says. “That sounds pretty right to me. Soooo, what do you think Iruma-chan? Your lies are usually pretty funny, so you can tell a few more of them if you want.”

“Or she could just cut to the point,” Maki says. “Iruma,” she turns to her, “Answer. Now.”

Under Maki’s icy stare, Iruma squirms and then practically bursts as she shouts, “O-Okay fine! Fucking fine! M-Maybe I logged the purple dildo out of the program! B-But that’s the only thing I did, right Bakamatsu? Never left your fucking side the whole time!”

Kaede frowns. “I mean, that is true, but why would you do something like logging someone out in the first place?”

“Seriously!” Momota shouts. “And why the fuck did you do it to me?”

She throws her hands in the air. “I just fucking picked someone at random, okay!?”

“But,” Shirogane presses. “Why did you plainly pick someone at all?”

“Maybe,” Ouma says. “Even if she didn’t go after Kiiboy, Iruma-chan was planning to kill, too, weren’t you?”

Iruma clenches her jaw, the sweat beading down her forehead only growing in intensity. Kaede says, “Iruma-san… were you?”

Tenko fidgets, looking down as she says, “Now that Tenko thinks about it, Iruma-san did not seem happy that Tenko stayed behind when everyone went into the virtual world.”

“That’s right,” Kaede says. “And… Iruma-san seemed annoyed when we pointed out something that would have forced all of us to go, as if it was an idea that hadn’t occurred to her before.”

“Oh, holy shit,” Momota says. “Iruma fucking botched her own murder attempt.”

“Sh-Shut up, dickweed!” Iruma snaps. “I-I did not!”

Maki sighs. “So Iruma tried to murder someone but was too incompetent. I suppose that is the most logical outcome.”

“Oh,” Shirogane says. “Would that also maybe explain the poison we found at the crime scene? I mean, if I remember right, Iruma-san was sitting in the chair next to mine, and we found the puddle between our chairs…”

Iruma frantically waves her hands. “That has nothing to do with anything, you rat bitch!”

“‘Rat bitch?’” Shirogane echoes. “Hey, I’m not some member of a cursed family!”

Hoshi says, “I take it that means we can assume she was planning to poison someone.” He sighs, “Suppose having a murderer who’s terrible at lying has some upsides.”

“Sh-Shut up!” she shouts again. “I-I don’t know anything about a-any poison, a-and I definitely didn’t get it from Shithara’s lab!”

Kaede sighs as she presses a hand to her forehead. “Alright, so, that answers that.”

Tenko adds, “Tenko remembers that she found the bottle for the poison broken behind Shirogane-san’s chair, and she does not remember it being there while she was in the computer room.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Shirogane says. “I remember only finding it after I logged out, so did Iruma-san try to kill someone after she logged out?”

“When she logged out of the program,” Maki says. “She ran straight to Kiibo in a panic.”

“Also, I think Tenko-san or I would have noticed if Iruma-san logged out before that,” Kaede says.

Hoshi says, “Remember seeing the poison, and I really don’t think this is much of a mystery.”

“Ooh,” says Ouma. “Hoshi-chan is stepping up to the plate to rat out Iruma-chan!”

Hoshi sighs, saying, “It’s not ratting out if it you’re proving someone innocent. But my point is mostly just that Chabashira probably ruined Iruma’s plans, and Iruma’s really clumsy.”

“Hey!” Iruma barks. “I’m graceful as fuck!”

Kaede simply raises an eyebrow at her defense before saying, “Ah, okay, but, Hoshi-kun,” she turns to him, “you have a theory about what happened.”

“I do,” he says. “And Harukawa or Momota could probably back this up since they were there.”

“Okay!” Momota says, slamming his fists together. “Let’s figure this shit out!”

Hoshi frowns. “Don’t think it’s worth getting that excited about…”

Iruma mumbles, “I fucking hate all of you…” as the conversation continues.

_(Present your Argument)_

“The bottle was only broken,” Tenko says, “After Tenko logged out of the program world—she saw no signs of it before that.”

“That’s probably true,” Hoshi fiddles with his cigarette as he goes on, saying, “my theory is that Iruma just had the poison with her—probably in her pocket or just next to her on her chair. Something like that…”

“Getting poison is super duper easy, too!” Ouma chimes in. “I have some of my very own, straight from Saihara-chan’s lab!”

Iruma protests, “I-I don’t even know where the fuck that is!”

“Shut up,” Maki says, “just let Hoshi speak.”

“All I was gonna say,” Hoshi continues, “is that she probably wasn’t paying much attention to the poison when she rushed to Kiibo after logging out.”

“So,” Shirogane says. “It just fell on the ground and smashed by itself?”

“It fell because Iruma’s a clumsy idiot,” Maki says. “That is fairly open and shut.”

Weakly, Iruma mumbles, “I… I don’t even know what poison is…”

_(BREAK)_

“That’s right,” Kaede says. “I wasn’t there when Iruma-san left the program world, but she was in a panic when she logged out, right? So it’s completely possible the entire reason it was broken in the first place was just an accident.”

“Something like that, yeah,” Hoshi says. “My guess is she had more on her mind then than her failed murder attempt. It’s her own fault we discovered it.”

Maki adds, “The actual smashed bottle was behind Shirogane’s chair, right? In her panic, it probably fell, and then Iruma kicked it when she was running to Kiibo or something like that. If that happened, the broken pieces of the bottle would be farther away from some of the spill, and it would take us longer to notice.”

“Iruma-san was very distressed, too, right?” Tenko asks. “If she was yelling or screaming when she logged out, that may have also distracted from the sounds of glass breaking.”

“Exactly,” Kaede says, “especially if her kicking the bottle caused it to shatter away from everyone else.”

“That makes sense,” Momota says. “But doesn’t that mean the poison isn’t really a clue to, like, anything other than the fact that Iruma’s an idiot?”

“Oh, you shut the fuck up,” Iruma says. “You fuck up trying to kill shrimp dick, and everyone just brushes over it, but when I do it—”

“What!?” Kaede says. “Iruma-san—you—”

“And Iruma-chan makes three!” Ouma says. “Hmm,” he taps a finger to his chin. “Let’s see? How many killers does that make in the room?”

Iruma’s hands practically jump to her mouth. “I-I didn’t—”

“Iruma-san’s target was Ouma-kun?” Shirogane says. “A-And she was going to poison him!?”

“But Chabashira-chan foiled Iruma-chan’s evil plans!” Ouma says. “And that alone was enough to ruin a plan she created an entire virtual world for.”

Momota says, “Iruma—” he shakes his head, trying to take in his words. “The entire fucking thing was a setup just to kill Ouma!?” He turns to her, clenching his jaw tightly, saying through gritted teeth, “You fucking told us to stop thinking of ways out of this school because you were planning to kill someone? What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

Iruma shrinks back with a yelp. “St-Stop yelling at me! M-My plan failed, a-and I just helped everyone after that, o-okay? I swear I didn’t fucking do anything else, and I’d never hurt Kiibs! So none of this crap matters!”

Momota still seems furious, muttering again, “What the fuck is wrong with everyone?”

“What’s wrong,” Ouma says. “Is what I said earlier—almost everyone here is capable of being a dirty, filthy killer.” He starts sniffling, mumbling, “Everyone is so mean, getting mad and accusing me of lying…”

Maki sighs. “Three different people tried to kill you, and you’re still alive somehow. How unfortunate.”

“Yeah!” says Iruma, suddenly bouncing back in spirits. “He’s like a fucking cockroach!”

Though Kaede holds no affection for Ouma, something about the callousness of their statements and the gravity of the situation causes her to snap, “The hell are you saying—you’d be happy if you managed to kill him!? You’d be happy to be a murderer? You want to be the person we’re going to have to vote for to _die_?”

Iruma retreats immediately, hurriedly saying, “I-I didn’t mean—”

“Your actions speak for you,” Hoshi says coldly. “Even if you were unsuccessful, you still made an attempt on someone’s life—that’s almost as unforgivable as actually committing murder.”

Ouma smiles cruelly. “Couldn’t have said it better myself, Hoshi-chan. Speaking of which, do you feel like sharing anything with the class?”

Hoshi frowns. “Me?”

“Actually you’re right,” Ouma presses a finger to his lips. “Let’s ask someone else first—it will be more exciting that way. Sooo, Akamatsu-chan, why don’t you talk about what you found when you investigated the basement? It might shed a bit of light on our situation.”

Kaede frowns, very aware she’s being tested on something. “Ouma-kun, what are you doing?”

“I’m just asking a question!” he says. “And if you won’t tell me, then I’ll just ask Shirogane-chan instead! I’m sure she can give the same answer.”

Shirogane says, “Um, I don’t mind going over what we found in the basement, but, well,” she sends Kaede a hesitant look, “if I just say what happened, that plainly can’t be a trap, right?”

“Exactly!” Ouma says. “So, so, so, you and Akamatsu-chan and Hoshi-chan all went down to the basement during the investigation—tell us what you found, spare no detail.”

“Well,” Shirogane says. “After Chabashira-san left, Hoshi-kun was still investigating a few of the other rooms in the basement, but Akamatsu-san came down to talk to me. I don’t… think we said much that was too important. Really, our conversation was plainly mostly just me complaining about how much of a mess the basement was.”

“That’s right,” Kaede says. “We looked around a little, but the entire area was a complete mess so it was kind of a lot to look through, though Shirogane-san did manage to find the Flashback Light later.”

To Kaede’s surprise, Momota suddenly looks very confused, saying, “Wait—when you mean the basement, you mean, like, the hall with all the beds and shit?”

“Yes,” says Shirogane. “I also went down there with Kiibo-kun earlier when we were trying to get everyone together, though… I guess if we hadn’t done that, he might not have died…”

“Uh, yeah,” Momota says, rubbing the back of his head. “That’s sad and shit, but the rooms were all messed up?”

Shirogane seems confused, and goes on to say, “That’s right—there were, like, blankets and pillows and furniture scattered all over the place. Honestly, I don’t blame you guys for not finding the Flashback Light—there was just so much to look through.”

“Well, there shouldn’t have been,” Momota says. “Because when I went down there, everything was fucking clean.”

Iruma tosses her hair over her shoulder. “Yeah, Shittygane—you need to get your eyes fucking checked. All the crap programmed by the great Iruma Miu is clean and organized as fuck, for your information.”

Kaede frowns, mildly perplexed by their conversation. She says, “Iruma-san, the church was pretty messy, too, but are you saying that the basement was neat before Kaito got logged out and got messed up by the time Shirogane-san and Kiibo-kun showed up?”

“Actually, uh,” Tenko says. “Tenko is confused about something.”

“What?” Maki asks. “Are you really having that much trouble following along?”

Kaede glares at Maki as she says, “What is it, Tenko-san?”

“Well…” she says. “When Kaede-san went to the library and it was messed up, she and Hoshi-san assumed a fight had taken place, but the bedrooms were messed up, too, and Shirogane-san told us that she and Kiibo-san just thought they were normally like that. That just… seemed weird to Tenko…”

Kaede furrows her brow. “You’re right, that is weird…” she looks to Shirogane. “Shirogane-san, why did just think that, actually?”

Shirogane wrings her hands. “Well, when I asked, that’s just what Hoshi-kun and Ouma-kun said—I didn’t really think to question them at the time, I admit.”

Momota snorts. “So either a hurricane went through when I was logged out, or they lied.”

“There is a chance that Hoshi-san simply tore up the place when he was looking around,” Tenko says. “Awful boys tend to make awful messes, after all.”

“But if that’s true, then wouldn’t he have found the Flashback Light?” Maki says. “It’s impossible for it to have been hidden in a mess that wasn’t there to begin with.”

“So those two fuckheads screwed all my shit up is what you’re saying,” Iruma says. “What the fuck did you do that for?”

Ouma pouts. “Why are you getting mad at me? It’s not my fault I had to run away…”

Kaede frowns. “You were running away?”

“Ouma,” Hoshi says. “If you’re trying to tell them something, just say it outright.”

He puffs out his cheeks. “I don’t like being ordered around by Hoshi-chan, especially after he chased me all around in the virtual world. So if you’re going to blame me for making a mess, you should blame Hoshi-chan, too!”

“Hey,” Tenko says. “Didn’t you bring this up in the first place?”

“Oh,” Ouma taps his chin. “I guess I did.” He grins, folding his arms behind his head. “I just thought this would be fun to share with everyone.”

“Just ignore him,” Maki says. “His story doesn’t make any sense anyway.”

Kaede looks at her oddly. “Which part of it seems strange?”

“The whole thing is strange!” Iruma says. “Is your head as empty as your sex life?”

Maki rolls her eyes. “Ouma always lies—if you just take his testimony at face value after all this time, you really are hopeless.”

“Then tell me what you think he’s lying about,” Kaede insists.

“Fine,” Maki says. “And then maybe all of you will finally realize how idiotic listening to Ouma is.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“There’s a hole in Ouma’s story,” Maki says. “If you know anything about anything, you should be able to realize that.”

Iruma shouts, “Knock it off with the fucking cryptic bullshit and just tell us!”

“I don’t know what Harumaki-chan’s talking about!” Ouma says. “All I said was that the basement got messed up when I was running from Hoshi-chan!”

“What do you think is wrong about that, Harumaki?” Momota asks.

“I think it’s wrong that Ouma would run at all,” Maki says. “Ouma’s a weakling, and someone as fast and strong as Hoshi would catch him immediately.”

“Hoshi-san is very fast,” Tenko says. “So, you think the chase would be over before it even started?”

Hoshi pulls his hat down, muttering, “I suppose that is one possibility…”

“But,” Momota says. “Why were you guys even running in the first place?”

“I was running because Hoshi-chan was chasing me,” Ouma says. “Like how now I’m arguing because Harukawa-chan is dumb!”

“Do you want to die?”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Wait,” Kaede says. “Harukawa-san, that’s wrong. I think what Ouma-kun’s saying is completely possible.”

Maki looks more skeptical than anything else when she turns to Kaede. “You’re actually taking Ouma’s side in this?”

“It’s not about sides,” Kaede says. “It’s about getting through this trial, and the fact is that I have evidence.”

“Ooh,” says Ouma. “Akamatsu-chan’s really stepping up!”

She rolls her eyes. “When we were in the program, Iruma-san explained how the avatars worked, and one of the things she said was that strength and speed were averaged out across all of us.”

“Which means gremlin and limp-wrist would be the same speed,” Iruma says. Then she cackles, “Yup! In Irumatopia, everyone finishes at the same speed!”

“So Ouma-san could plausibly run away from Hoshi-san if he needed to?” Tenko asks. “Tenko knows awful boys like playing stupid games like that, but why would they do something like that?”

“That’s what we need to find out,” Kaede says. “Ouma-kun has just been giving us circular answers, so Hoshi-kun, can you tell us why you two were fighting?”

Hoshi sighs and stares at the ground. “You want me to come out and say it, but, I have to admit, I think it’s pretty obvious. After all, there’s really only one reason anyone would get into a fight in a place like this.”

“You… you were gonna kill him. God,” Momota runs a hand over his face. “You fucking asked to come with us because… fuck.”

Ouma’s cheer fades as he says, “And Hoshi-chan makes four.”

“S-So—wait,” Shirogane says. “How long were you two fighting for—did you find the Flashback Light before you started?”

Ouma says, “As soon as I left the library by myself, and told Hoshi-chan that Momota-chan had disappeared, the chase begun! Really it was pretty silly of me to tell a known killer I was all by my lonesome.”

Hoshi just pulls down his hat. “And there you have it.”

Tenko shakes her head. “Hoshi-san… Hoshi-san,” she looks hard at him. “The day before, when you came to see Tenko at her lab, you said things were only going to get worse for us—were you planning to kill Ouma-san even then?”

He fiddles with his cigarette and remains silent. Tenko’s voice is strained as she says, “Hoshi-san! Did you,” she brings her hands to up to wipe at what Kaede thinks are the beginning of tears born from anger forming in her eyes, “did you just come to Tenko’s lab to comfort her because you were planning to let her and everyone else die!? Is that why you came—you were just trying to trick Tenko into thinking you cared about anything other than yourself!?”

Hoshi stays quiet. Momota shouts, “Hey! Chabashira’s fucking talking to you!”

“And I doubt she’d want to hear any excuses from a murderer,” Hoshi answers coldly. “Don’t know what she wants me to say other than I saw an opportunity to kill, and I took it—it’s not that complicated…”

“Th-This is horrible, but,” Shirogane says. “You went after Ouma-kun, right? So what about Kiibo-kun?”

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut for a second before squaring her shoulders, saying, “I don’t know. But… we know four of us went into the program world ready to commit murder.”

“And that’s what we should stay focused on!” Ouma says. “Four merry murderers, all trying to prove their innocence!”

Iruma shouts, “We already proved my fucking innocence, you grape flavored asswipe!”

“And we’ve been over that it’s impossible for it to be me or Momota,” Maki says.

Momota says, “That’s right—me and Harumaki had nothing to do with Kiibo’s death.”

Quieter, Hoshi says, “I don’t expect to be forgiven for my actions—fact is, I really shouldn’t be…”

The four of them continue to talk on top of each other, each going over their story and their innocence in rapid fire. Kaede says, “Everyone—calm down, stop—”

“No,” Ouma says, softly. “If you let a murderer keep talking, eventually they’ll slip up, especially if they don’t think anyone’s paying attention. Sooo,” he grins up at her, “now’s your chance to shine, Akamatsu-chan! Use your magic ears, and go get ‘em!”

Kaede blinks. “‘My magic ears?’” Despite the oddity of his choice of words, his point dawns on Kaede as the panic around her increases.

With a deep breath, she straightens Saihara’s hat on her head and focuses on the job in front of her that only she has the ability to complete.

_(Panic Talk Action)_

Iruma says, “I was with Bakamatsu the whole fucking time!”

“I’m getting sick of you blindly accusing me,” Maki says.

“When Ouma and I were alone in the basement,” Hoshi says.

“Especially when I have an alibi for the murder.”

“But weren’t there moments when the two of you were alone for a little while?” Shirogane asks.

“I tried to kill him—that’s why the room was a mess.”

“That was seconds at fucking most! As if anyone could pull off a murder like that!” Iruma says.

 Hoshi adds, “But I didn’t remember seeing the Flashback Light at all until Shirogane found it.”

“Harumaki,” Momota says. “I know you didn’t do it, but…”

“How can we trust anything someone as horrible as you says!?” Tenko shouts.

 “I suppose that is a good point…” Shirogane says. “That actually reminds me…”

 “We still fucked up, y’know? Both of us—and we have to make up for that.”

 “With all these murder attempts, I never saw anything in the virtual world that could be used as a weapon,” she says.

 Maki responds, “Which is why you’ve decided to believe in Ouma…”

“That’s fair—I deserve that,” Hoshi says. “I did mean what I said earlier…”

Iruma concludes, “Because I pulled everything out early!” 

“An attempt on someone’s life is unforgivable.”

“Even if it’s just out of your own guilt,” Maki says.

_(BREAK)_

Amidst the chaos, Kaede hears, not a confession of guilt from a killer, but something she knows is untrue. “Shirogane-san,” she says suddenly. “What you said, ‘there was nothing in the virtual world that could be used as a weapon,’ is that really true?”

Shirogane blinks at her, clearly taken by surprise at being singled out. “Um, well I thought it was—do you think that’s wrong, Akamatsu-san?”

“Oh?” says Ouma. “Are you doubting Iruma-chan, then? Well, I suppose that makes sense since she is a horrible, useless liar.”

“Hey!” Iruma barks. “Who are you calling a liar, you little shitstain?”

“Actually,” Kaede says. “There is something I think could be used as a murder weapon, though it’s a little… unorthodox.”

“Unorthodox?” Shirogane says. “How unorthodox? Was it a hairpin, or a playing card, a tiara? Ugh,” she pulls a face, “it wasn’t anything like nose hair was it?”

“Uh, no, one of those,” Kaede answers, mildly disturbed. “What I was thinking of were the golden statues Iruma-san made of herself—they were almost everywhere in the virtual world, you could carry them around easily enough and wield them in your hands.” She sighs. “And when I briefly picked one up in the storage shed on the roof, I noticed that they’re pretty heavy, too.”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko asks, very softly. “Were the statues heavy enough to use a blunt weapon like when…”

Kaede feels her throat tighten as the words Tenko does not say resonate deeply through her. “I think so,” she still manages to say. “You could definitely use one to attack someone—a hard enough blow to the head with one would probably result in death…”

Momota curses under his breath. “Fuck—hey, didn’t everyone who went to the roof also go into the storage shed, like, one at a time?”

“Which means anyone who went there could have taken one,” Maki says. “So then, the only people who couldn’t have done it are me, Chabashira, and…” she takes a deep breath, “Ouma, apparently.”

“Ouma’s not quite off the table yet,” Hoshi says. “There were statues in the library, too—so it’s a possibility he grabbed one there.”

To Kaede’s surprise, over Ouma beginning to sniffle about Hoshi bullying him, Tenko shouts, “Don’t _you_ accuse him!”

After everything that’s happened since the trial began, that alone seems to stun Hoshi, leaving him to only mutter, “What?”

“Don’t you—how dare you,” her anger causes her to trip over her words, but Tenko finally manages to say, “Ouma-san wouldn’t kill anyone, a-and—and when Yumeno-san died, Gonta-san was killed, too! And Tenko thought that because of that when you came to her lab maybe you understood!”

Hoshi looks at her for a moment before letting his eyes flicker back to the floor. “Don’t know what to tell you…”

Tenko sweeps her arm over the room. “Tenko has said so many times how tired she is of everyone only just thinking of themselves! She’s tired of people keeping secrets and lying to her, and trying to hurt each other while Yumeno-san’s killer just gets to watch us and laugh!”

Momota also hangs his head in shame. “Shit, Chabashira…”

“Tenko thought,” she rubs angrily at her eyes, “Tenko thought that since Hoshi-san lost someone important to him, too, maybe he’d understand just how horrible this game is. But it looks like she was wrong…” she shakes her head, snapping, “that’s what Tenko gets for thinking she could believe in boys.”

Hoshi doesn’t take his eyes off the floor as he pulls at his hat. “You’re right,” he says. “This game is horrible—everything about our situation is horrible, and I’m only making it worse.” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry—that’s all I can tell you, Chabashira.”

Tenko doesn’t respond other than to wipe her eyes on the back of her sleeves. Beside her, Ouma hums. “Very insightful, Chabashira-chan—and while we’re picking on Hoshi-chan, I think Akamatsu-chan should finish saying why she thought Iruma-chan’s tacky statues could be the murder weapon.”

Kaede stares hard, keeping her gaze fixed on him as she says, “When Shirogane-san and I were investigating the bedrooms in the basement, we found a statue hidden in one of the rooms. And… that wouldn’t be too suspicious by itself, but there wasn’t a storage of them there like in the library or on the roof, which means someone brought it there deliberately.”

“And it’s pretty hard to believe someone would just decide to carry one of those around with them for no reason,” Maki says. “If it was found in a place where we know there was a fight, it all plainly adds up to someone trying to use it as a makeshift murder weapon.”

“Well,” Iruma says. “How ‘bout Hoshit—you try and bash in the midget’s brains with my beautiful bod?”

Hoshi glares at her. “Wouldn’t phrase it like that, but that is what happened.”

“Can confirm!” Ouma says happily. “Being chased around by itself is pretty scary, but being chased by someone holding something that looks like Iruma-chan?” He shudders. “Ugh, gives me chills just thinking about it.”

“That all makes sense,” Momota says. “But,” he scratches the back of his head, “are we any closer to figuring out what happened to Kiibo?”

“Ah, that’s right,” Shirogane says, hugging herself. “Maybe one of the statues of Iruma-san could have been used as a murder weapon, but… there plainly wasn’t one near his body at the crime scene.”

Kaede nods. “That’s right, and there’s a few other mysteries we still don’t know the answers to, although,” she crosses her arms, “the one that’s the strangest to me has to be just how quickly Kiibo-kun was killed.”

“He entered a room and died in seconds at most,” Maki says. “If we can trust the timeframe we’ve been given, it’s likely he had just made it past the loading screen when his death occurred.”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “Killed right after spawning is the absolute worst—though it makes sense Iruma-chan would create a game as awful and bug-ridden as her.”

Iruma scowls. “There only bug in the program was you, you little pest.”

Kaede furrows her brow as she thinks over her time entering the library again. “Hey,” she says. “Maybe it was just me, but did the loading screen in the library seem to take longer than the others?”

Momota runs a hand through his hair, trying to recall. “Fuck—hell if I can remember—maybe? Why? You think someone took advantage of that if it was?”

“The loading screens,” Tenko says softly, “Tenko remembers being very surprised when she tried going through one—you’re totally blind and deaf and it’s impossible to move…”

Ouma presses a finger to his lips. “Completely helpless, wouldn’t you say? Be pretty easy to sneak up on someone if they were in a position like that.”

“But, um,” Shirogane says. “Maybe this is wrong, but wouldn’t the culprit get stuck in the loading screen, too?”

“If they followed after Kiibo-kun, they would,” Kaede says. “Which means, I think the only thing we can— _have_ —to assume about Kiibo-kun’s death is that someone set up a trap.”

“Why we assumin’ that?” Iruma asks. “‘Cause everyone’s got alibis?”

Kaede nods. “Right—that and the fact that Kiibo-kun was basically alone when he died means the only way this could have happened is if someone set something up beforehand.”

“The only people who could have done something like that are Momota—who we know is innocent—and Ouma,” Maki says. “So Ouma’s the culprit, and it’s an answer we could have come to hours ago if you weren’t all so obsessed with believing in a compulsive liar.”

“Compulsive _friendly_ liar,” Ouma corrects. “But nope! Good try, Harukawa-chan! You’re on the right track.”

Momota shakes his head. “Ouma—knock it off. If you say crap like that it’ll only make you more suspicious.”

“So when I said everyone was obsessed with defending him,” Maki says.

Kaede decides to cut in. “If we want to clear Ouma-kun of suspicion, all we need to do is figure out how long he was in the library by himself. I… have a feeling the trap used to kill Kiibo-kun probably took a while to make.”

“Well, maybe purple dildo number one helped purple dildo number two,” Iruma suggests. “They’ve been pretty fucking buddy-buddy and crap, haven’t they?”

“N-No,” Tenko says, still holding her hands close to her heart. “Tenko… doesn’t know if she can trust them, but, with the way Momota-san has been acting, she really doubts he would help Ouma-san do something that could result in his death.”

“I would never,” Momota says. “My word probably doesn’t fucking mean much, but I swear I didn’t help set up any crap that would hurt anyone.”

“So, if we believe that Momota-kun didn’t help,” Shirogane says. “Um, then if Ouma-kun was the killer, he would have had to build whatever trap was used alone.”

“Ooh, point for Shirogane-chan!” Ouma cheers. “Buuut, I was alone in the library for barely a minute at most.”

Maki rolls her eyes. “And we’re going to just believe that without evidence.”

Ouma hums. “Evidence… evidence… evi… dence… Akamatsu-chan!” he beams as he turns to her. “You’re really good at carrying the team, even if most of the team are dirty murderers, sooo what do you think? Have any special evi-dence that can prove an angel like me innocent?”

Kaede furrows her brow. “Tenko-san,” she says. “You remember what time Kaito was logged out, right?”

“Uh, yes,” Tenko responds. “Tenko… didn’t have much to do in the computer room, so she was watching the clocks a lot, and she remembers that it was about five-forty when Momota-san started suddenly panicking.”

“The fuck does that get us?” Iruma asks. “There wasn’t a fucking clock in the virtual world, so unless one of us is physic, whatever time flowerbrain got zapped doesn’t mean anything.”

“You say that like you’re not the one responsible,” Hoshi says.

Kaede turns to examine Ouma. There were no ladders in the library, and he had no one to help him. The chances that he could actually, physically set up the same trap she did so long ago are slim, but, revealing what she suspects the nature of the trap is has other complications. And… even if she has to lie, there’s another lie she needs exposed more. Perhaps her own sins will come out in time, but for now, there’s still another way.

She says, “I have other evidence, too. Something Tenko-san and I were able to get from the computer room at the end of the investigation,” she shifts her gaze to give Tenko a meaningful look, “and I know if we all trust exactly what it says, then we should be able to shed some light on exactly what happened.”

Tenko seems a bit confused but nods along easily enough. “That’s right—Tenko was able to get something that… might possibly prove Ouma-san innocent.”

“Well, don’t let me stop, you,” Ouma says, pressing a finger to his lips, “I’m sure Akamatsu-chan won’t let us down.”

Kaede clenches her jaw, and the arguments begin anew.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Ouma could have set up a trap to kill Kiibo,” Maki says. “He had the means, the motive, and the time to do so.”

“Slow down, Harumaki,” Momota says. “We can’t know if all that’s true yet.”

“But isn’t the problem with knowing if he had the time to build a trap,” Shirogane says, “the fact that there were no clocks in the virtual world?”

“Hey! Hey, Iruma-chan!” Ouma says. “Why’d you take out all the clocks?”

She growls, “I didn’t take out crap that wasn’t there to begin with!”

“Which means there was nothing keeping track of time,” Maki says, “and that means we only have Ouma’s word to decide if he left the scene of the crime when he says he did—and we all know how much we can trust that.”

Shirogane says, “This would be so much easier if one of the bedrooms had just had an alarm clock or something so Hoshi-kun could have seen.”

“Didn’t see anything like that,” Hoshi says. “But even if there was, my word’s not worth much either.”

_(BREAK)_

Kaede says, “When I first tried to get everyone’s alibis, I also thought it was true that there was no way to keep track of time in the program… but it turns out that’s wrong.”

Momota asks, “Is that the evidence you and Chabashira found?”

“Where exactly did you get this evidence from?” Maki asks.

“Uh,” Tenko says. “A-Actually one of the Monokubs got it for Tenko… the red one said it wanted to avenge its father.”

From just in front of Monokuma’s stand, there’s a squawk of “She doesn’t even know my name! Actually… what’s my name again? Monokid? Monomi? Monoch—” before it gets punched by the pink one.

Hoshi says, “Sincerely doubt there’s a less reliable source than that…”

“But it’s all we have,” Kaede says. “And it seems odd to me that they’d go to all that trouble to fake such extensive evidence.”

“Well, what is it already?” Iruma asks. “Quit being a fucking tease and spit it out!”

Kaede quirks an eyebrow, deeply unimpressed by Iruma’s reaction. She says, “It’s a read out of every time someone used one of the card readers—apparently that information was being recorded with the person’s name, place, and the time they used it.”

“Which means it is possible to know when Ouma-kun left the library,” Shirogane says. “So, what does the log say?”

“I looked it over with Tenko-san earlier, and it backs up what Ouma-kun told us,” Kaede says, keeping her voice as even as possible. “Kaito was logged out at five-forty, and apparently Ouma-kun used his card to exit the library just two minutes later, which isn’t nearly enough time to set up a secret trap that none of us would be able to easily spot after the murder.”

Tenko nods curtly. “That is correct,” she confirms. Beside her, Ouma just looks amused.

And across the room, Kaede hears the response she had been hoping to get—Iruma making a slight, spluttering choked noise. “Wait—what?” she says. “W-When the fuck did that happen?”

Ouma responds, “Well, if you take a time, and you add two minutes to that, then—”

“The real question,” Maki says, shooting a dark glare at Iruma, “is why were our movements being recorded?”

She waves her hands wildly in defense, saying, “D-Don’t fucking ask me! The bears put them in and shit, you know—to build team bone-ing or whatever?”

“Do… do you mean bonding?” Shirogane asks.

“But,” Momota says. “Even if that’s why they were there, the fuck would they need to record all that crap?”

“Doubt anyone’s interested in the exact time people ‘become friends’ or ‘start getting along,’” Hoshi says. “But… if that is true, Ouma can’t be a suspect then, can he?”

“And I am cleared from suspicion once again!” Ouma says. “Personally, I’d like to thank the academy, my parents, Akamatsu-chan—even if she does smell—my cat—”

“No!” Iruma jabs a finger at him. “You sit the fuck down!”

Kaede says, “Is there a problem, Iruma-san?”

“Fuck yeah, there’s a problem!” she says. “Hey!” she barks. “Chabashitra—you still got that log or whatever with you? I wanna take a look.”

Tenko starts to sweat. “U-Uh, Tenko left it in the computer room.”

“And I don’t think Monokuma would just let us go back for it,” Kaede says. “So, if you have a problem, we’re going to have to just talk about it here.”

“Ah, Akamatsu-chan!” Ouma says. “You’re being so mean to Iruma-chan—and I thought you two were best friends! Though,” his face darkens even as his smile grows, “I suppose it makes sense after what she did to you.”

Kaede blinks. “Did to me?”

“Hey,” Iruma says. “I’ll have you know that I have fucking standards—maybe Bakamatsu’s like a six or a six and a half, but I only go for other tens.”

“I don’t think there’s a conversation I want to hear less in my life than this one,” Maki says. “Iruma—say something useful or don’t say anything at all.”

She retreats in on herself, mumbling, “I-I was j-just thinking that, uh—”

“She thinks Akamatsu’s lying about when Ouma left the library,” Hoshi says abruptly.

Kaede whips towards him. “What?”

He shakes his head in response. “The fact is if you think logically about Ouma’s situation after Momota logged out, it’s literally impossible for him to have left the library at all.”

Momota slowly says, “That’s… right, isn’t it? Fuck—if I left the library, and Ouma was alone…”

“He wouldn’t have a second person to leave the library with him,” Maki finishes. “Which means he should have been trapped.”

“But obviously I wasn’t!” Ouma says. “Oh, good thing, too—libraries make me break out in hives, you know.”

“I… doubt that last part is true,” Shirogane says.

Kaede says, “To stay on track, all of this can only mean one thing about the rules of the virtual world we were told when we first entered.”

“Iruma-chan’s a liar!” Ouma practically sings.

Then, a different voice says, “Iruma-san is what?”

At it’s call, everyone immediately turns to the source of the sound, which happens to be Iruma hurriedly pulling her monopad out of her pocket. Even from her distant podium, Kaede can see a soft glow emanating from it, and when it speaks again, saying, “did I miss something important?” there is absolutely no mistake that Kiibo is back.

Momota physically leans almost all the way across the empty podium separating him from Iruma to say, “Hey! Kiibo!”

Maki scoffs, turning away from the sight. “How convenient.”

“Ah, my apologies,” Kiibo says. “If you were discussing something important, please continue—I will do my best to follow along.”

“That’s right!” Ouma says. “Kiiboy is dead and should be quiet! Let us humans have a chance to shine!”

Hoshi rolls his eyes. “Kiibo—all you need to know is that Iruma lied to us.”

“Lied?” he echoes.

“Tenko… just wants to know why she would do something like that,” Tenko says. “Iruma-san sent up the program that way for a reason, right? So… what is that reason?”

Iruma sweats as she spits out, “Alright—fine! Maybe I lied, but that doesn’t mean squat fuck, got it?”

“So you don’t intend to just answer her question, do you?” Maki sighs. “Then we’ll just have to figure it out ourselves then…”

Softly Kiibo says, “Iruma-san?” as they begin to debate her lie.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Iruma-san plainly lied to us when we entered the program,” Shirogane says. “The fact that Ouma-kun was able to leave the library alone proves that, right?”

“The library…” Kiibo parrots.

Momota rubs the back of his head. “So the ID cards were complete bullshit, huh?”

“ID cards…”

“But… why would Iruma-san do something like that?” Tenko asks. “Was she trying to keep everyone in the program divided?”

“Divided…”

“Ooh, or maybe she was trying to trap us!” Ouma says.

“A… trap…”

Momota suggests, “maybe she was just recording us? Or tracking? Or spying?”

“And maybe you were all just shutting the fuck up!” Iruma yells. “Can’t you see you’re scaring, Kiibs?”

Despite his previous echoes, Kiibo remains quiet after her last statement.

_(BREAK)_

“I think that’s it,” Kaede says. “She was tracking us—when we got the log from the computer room, the bear said that apparently that information was also being sent somewhere inside the virtual world.”

Ouma says, “Aaaand, I think we can all agree only one person here could have set something like that up!”

Iruma sweats even harder, shaking her head as she mutters, “N-No, I-I don’t even know how to—”

“Iruma-san,” Kaede says. “Please, just tell us the truth. You’re someone I really want to believe in,” _because I know you’re not the mastermind_ , she thinks, “for a lot of reasons. So please just admit it, especially if you’re not the culprit—keeping secrets only makes finding Kiibo-kun’s real killer harder.”

And Kiibo repeats to himself, “My real killer…”

Iruma bites her lip as she stares down at the screen in her hands. Then, taking in one tight breath, she says, “fine—fine. M-Maybe the card readers were just to track everyone.”

Momota prompts, “And you did something that shitty because?”

“‘Cause I was fucking scared!” she shouts. “‘Cause I can’t fucking trust anyone in this hellhole besides Kiibs and Bakamatsu, and the second he left my goddamn side, someone murdered him!”

“Were you…” Tenko begins. “Were you also afraid of the mastermind, Iruma-san?”

Her grip tightens even more at Tenko’s question before she darkly mutters, “you all know they’re gonna fucking come for me. They’re just biding their fucking time before they come to murder me in my sleep—and don’t any of you assholes pretend you didn’t know that.”

Kiibo says, “you’ve… been thinking that for a while now, haven’t you? Iruma-san…”

Maki stares at her, clearly unimpressed as she says, “You… actually are that paranoid.”

“But it turns out we should have been the paranoid ones,” Ouma says. “After all—Iruma-san was watching our every movement.”

Iruma rolls her eyes. “Wasn’t fucking watching shit—yeah, I had crap telling me where people were going, but it was just a list like what I’m guessing the scissor sisters found.”

“Guess,” Momota says, “guess that also explains why you fucked up the bridge, huh?”

“You were afraid of us…” Shirogane says, hugging herself. “But… after everything everyone confessed today, and the fact that the mastermind is still hiding… I guess I’d be pretty afraid of us, too…”

“There, Bakamatsu,” Iruma says sharply. “You fucking happy?”

Kaede takes a deep breath. “I… don’t think I would say happy, but,” she squares her shoulders, “I do think I know how this incident played out, and who the killer is.”

Ouma hums. “I think you’ve known for a while now but didn’t want to say anything, buuut,” he beams at her, “get ready to pump yourself up, Akamatsu-chan! This is where the real fight is going to begin!”

“The real fight?” Tenko says. “If Kaede-san needs to fight someone then—”

“Then she’ll have to face a very special challenger _and_ ,” he grins. “Another very special someone from the past—Amami-chan!”

Kaede winces as the others startle. Momota says, “The fuck are you bringing him up for?”

Shirogane gasps. “D-Did Amami-kun’s ghost—”

“He’s just trying to delay the inevitable to entertain himself,” Maki snaps.

Tenko spins towards Ouma to deliver a sharp chop to the top of his head, something fierce and protective gleaming in her eyes. “Ow!” Ouma whines, hands flying to where she hit him. “What was that for—”

“If you are just trying to torment Kaede-san further, then you will have to answer to Tenko—trial or not,” she says harshly.

“B-But I was just trying to warn her—”

“You were threatening her!” Tenko shouts back. “And Tenko—”

“Tenko-san,” Kaede says. “It’s okay—I know what he’s talking about.” She pulls Saihara’s hat just over her eyes. “I… I had a feeling this would come up since the investigation, no matter how much I didn’t want it to.”

Maki gives her an odd look, crossing her arms as she says, “Are you confessing to being the culprit?”

“No,” Kaede says. “But this murder is my fault, too, because this is a copycat crime, and there’re very, very few people who could have done something like that. In fact, there’s really only one person, and I’m so, so sorry.”

_(Select Someone)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And a little late, but here it is! I think the culprit is reasonably simple to pinpoint now, though I'd be a pretty bad mystery writer if it wasn't after they went over almost all the clues, haha. Also, as you might be able to guess, I've wanted to have a trial where the twist was multiple murder attempts on top of each other, and I decided since this is DR that I might as well see just how many I could stack, though perhaps four might be a little much, haha. 
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading as we near the end of chapter 4!


	26. Trial IX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An execution is detailed this chapter.

Kaede takes a deep breath. She says, “The culprit is—”

And Hoshi says, “It’s fine.”

Kaede blinks. “What?”

“Said it’s fine,” he says almost nonchalant. “You don’t need to say it—I confess.”

“You,” Kaede stares at him, furrowing her brow in confusion. “You what?”

“I confess,” Hoshi says again. “What more do you want?”

Tenko glares at him. “So it was you… you were planning to kill this whole time.”

He shrugs. “Guess I was.”

Momota shakes his head. “What the fuck, man—why did you keep quiet until now?”

“Because the little assmunch wanted to escape and leave us all to die!” Iruma shouts, slamming a hand on her podium. “And he’s only confessing because he doesn’t want Bakamatsu to beat the shit out of him!”

“You mean… verbally?” Shirogane asks.

Hoshi just shakes his head. “Think I’ve put up enough of a fight already—don’t see much of a point in making myself look even worse by resisting when it’s pointless.”

Tenko’s glare intensifies. “So you killed one of our friends, lied to us, and now you’re just going to let yourself die because you don’t want to look bad!? How—how can you be this horrible!?”

“Don’t know what to tell you,” Hoshi says with a sigh. “Just figured it be better to hear the truth straight from me instead of making Akamatsu do it.”

Iruma glares, too. “You know what? Fuck you. You fucking murdered Kiibs because you were pissed off that rat face got away.” She turns to Kaede. “Kill him, blimp tits.”

Kaede just looks at him searchingly. “Hoshi-kun… what is this?”

“It’s a confession,” Ouma says. “What do you think about that, Akamatsu-chan?”

“Why are you asking her?” Momota asks. “Hoshi’s the one we need to be interrogating, right? Like,” he sighs, “I get confessing to crap because… it’s the right thing to do, and this is about Hoshi not Kaede, right?”

“Hoshi-kun…” Kiibo says. “He… killed me?”

“I did,” Hoshi answers. “And I had the time and opportunity—Shirogane and Ouma can testify as much.”

Shirogane fidgets. “Well, I did suspect Hoshi-kun a bit during the investigation, I’ll admit. I mean, he was the only one who was alone with Kiibo-kun, so I just plainly thought that made him a little suspicious…”

“And you were right,” Hoshi says. “This case really isn’t that complicated. Don’t have much interest in setting elaborate traps or anything like that.”

Maki stares at him. “So… you’re saying our assumption that someone set a trap was wrong. That’s your argument?”

“Not arguing,” he responds. “Just saying what happened.”

Ouma says, “The simplest solution usually is the correct one, but… sometimes someone’s so suspicious they wrap around to not being suspicious anymore.”

“And sometimes you should shut the fuck up!” Iruma says. “I can’t fucking believe Kiibo was killed as gremlin’s sloppy seconds.”

Kaede says, “So… that’s your motive—you just wanted to escape and… you saw an opportunity to go after Kiibo-kun after Ouma-kun got away?”

Hoshi says, “That’s righ—”

“No,” Maki says sharply. “There’s more to it than that.”

“Oh?” Ouma says. “Does Harukawa-chan know something?”

She pauses for a moment too long, and Momota says, “It’s okay to tell us—we’re gonna believe you, you know, and we’re also done with suspecting you.”

Maki shoots a glare towards Kaede out of the corner of her eye. “Is that so?”

“Harukawa-san, please,” Kaede says, taking a moment to swallow her pride. “I want to hear it. If you know what the motive is, it might help me… make sense of what’s going on.”

Maki regards her warily for a moment. Then, “There are only two people who ever had the keycard and the opportunity to discover where it went to. And the ability.”

“The ability?” Tenko asks. “Isn’t having the keycard the ability?”

“No,” she says. “You’d need more than that because the keycard goes to a door at the end of the trapped tunnel Akamatsu forced us to try and use to escape.”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “You—you both made it through the tunnel?”

“Weeeell,” Ouma says. “Without the rest of us slowing them down, a professional athlete like Hoshi-chan and a trained super assassin like Harukawa-chan could probably do it after a few tries.”

Momota clenches his jaw. “Harumaki… during the black out, you said there was something you wanted to check, right? And no one saw you the whole time—did you go to the tunnels?”

“I did,” she says. “And that was the only time I went there. I discovered a door that required a keycard and left.” She shakes her head. “Whether I could have made it through the tunnels when the traps were operational is irrelevant because I never went back after that.”

“So do you or do you not fucking know why ankle biter went berserk?” Iruma asks.

“I never saw the motive, if that’s what you’re asking,” Maki says. “But Hoshi-kun did.”

“Because he had the opportunity?” Tenko asks.

“Because he told me,” Maki says.

Kaede blinks at her for a moment before turning to Hoshi who stares somewhere far away. “Hoshi-kun, did you? And why?”

“He told me he’d help me if I wanted to kill someone,” Maki says. “In other words, he offered to be my accomplice.”

Tenko shakes her head. “You—you just wanted someone dead that badly…”

“Hmm, maybe,” Ouma says. “I guess some killers just always have a thirst for blood. I mean,” his face darkens, “it was easy to talk down someone like Momota-chan, but Hoshi-chan’s used to killing, you know?”

“That’s not the point,” Maki says. “Offering to be an accomplice is strange, no matter how you look at it.”

Kaede opens her mouth to agree when Hoshi says, “it’s not strange if Chabashira’s right. Saw the motive and decided to kill—that’s all there is to it.”

“Fucking hell,” Momota breathes out. “The fuck was the motive then if it’d make you wanna do that?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Hoshi says. “Already told Akamatsu—some truths are better off not being discovered. So,” he sighs. “Think that’s all I have to say. If you don’t mind, I’d like to start the vote now.”

Kiibo says, “The vote… this is how this ends?”

His statement seems odd and disconnected, but something about it causes the already uneasy feeling in Kaede’s stomach to spur her into more immediate action. “Wait—I really think we should talk about this more,” she says. “Hoshi-kun, I know you keep saying this murder was simple, so why don’t you just go over what you did?” He sends her a skeptical look, and she quickly tacks on, “Just to clear all of our doubts.”

“You want me to explain how I killed someone?” Hoshi asks in a low voice.

“Tenko-san and Iruma-san already requested I do it,” Kaede says. “But there are still a few things I’m not sure about, and I’d like to hear it from you, since you are confessing.”

It’s clear the fact that he’s being tested does not escape him, and Hoshi pauses for a moment before saying, “fine, here’s what happened.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“So,” Iruma says. “How’d you fucking do it, Hoshit?”

“There’s not much to it,” he says. “Just followed after Kiibo when he went to the library.”

“And you were already planning to kill him at that point,” Maki says. “Because you failed to kill Ouma.”

He nods. “That’s right. Then when we were alone, I just bashed him over the head and came back.”

“And you acted like you had just discovered the body?” Shirogane asks. “I guess… the first witness usually is the most suspicious…”

“He could have gotten a statue from the shed on the roof or something,” Momota says. “We were all idiots and just let everyone go in there one at a time…”

“And then he just picked it up and kept it with him after the murder,” Iruma. “Probably shoved it up his fucking asshole or something.”

Hoshi glares at her. “You do realize I’m a convicted murderer who’s about to die, right?”

She withers. “A-As if s-someone like you could in-intimidate the great Iruma Miu!”

“Hey!” Ouma says. “Lying is my thing! You guys all back off! Especially if you’re just going to turn this into amateur hour!”

_(BREAK)_

“Hoshi-kun,” Kaede says. “Your story is that after killing Kiibo-kun, you took the statue with you, right?”

He narrows his eyes. “There a problem with that?”

“It is because it seems strange when compared with facts we already know,” she says. “When you were chasing Ouma-kun, you dropped a statue in one of the bedrooms, right? Specifically the one Shirogane-san said she and Kiibo-kun found the two of you in.”

“And?” Hoshi presses. “Failing to see how these things are connected.”

“They’re not connected because they don’t make any sense together,” Kaede says. “No matter how you think of it, isn’t it strange that you would purposefully hide one murder weapon when you were carrying another one on you?”

His gaze darkens. “Heard people coming and panicked—that’s all there is to it.”

“You keep saying that,” Kaede says. “And I think it’s because you’re lying. You don’t want to explain because your story will fall apart if you do.”

Hoshi glares. “And tell me—why would I lie?”

“I don’t know,” Kaede says meeting his stare. “But I know you are.”

Tenko says, “So,” her hands clench into fists. “Hoshi-san is just jerking us around? You just want this horrible trial for a friend who isn’t even dead to last longer?”

“Or maybe he’s protecting the culprit,” Maki says with a pointed look towards Kaede. “It’s not like we haven’t heard a false confession before.”

Kaede turns to face her. She says, “That’s right—we have fallen for false confessions before, but,” she glances to Hoshi, “if Hoshi-kun is protecting the culprit, I have no idea why.”

“Not protecting anyone,” Hoshi says. “I am the culprit, and I already told you how I did it.”

“And Kaede said that didn’t make any sense,” Momota says. “And I’m gonna fucking believe her. Also,” he gives him an odd look, “what the fuck has been up with you? Earlier you were pushing really hard for the idea that Kiibo killed himself or whatever? Do you want us to vote wrong?”

“What kind of jackass would try and do something as fucking dumb as that?” Iruma asks. “They’d fucking die, too—idiot.”

Shirogane says, “I don’t think anyone would do something like that considering what would happen, so maybe Hoshi-kun is protecting the culprit?”

There is a deep bitterness in Tenko’s word, “Hoshi-san has already shown he doesn’t care about any of us.”

“Good point, good point,” Ouma says. “After all, the only person Hoshi-chan cared about is already dead, soooo maybe we’re looking at this wrong.”

Maki finishes, “Maybe he has nothing left to lose, which could be why he offered to be an accomplice.”

Hoshi just shuts his eyes as he pulls down his hat. Iruma says, “Fucking Christ—if you wanted to kill yourself, you coulda just done it without taking us all down with you. And!” she jabs a finger at him, “You coulda left Kiibs the fuck alone!”

Hoshi remains silent. Momota sighs, saying, “clamming up now?

Kaede listens to the accusations being thrown around her, and something odd ticks in her brain as a sudden connection comes into focus. She chooses her words carefully as she says, “I think it’s pretty obvious that Hoshi-kun isn’t about to tell us the truth, but if we think about what we’ve talked about earlier… I have a feeling we’ll figure something out.”

“You have a feeling?” Maki says. “And we’re all just going to rely on that?”

“We are,” Kaede says. “Because it’s the only way to get someone else to tell us the truth.”

Ouma hums. “Interesting. Find a different liar to poke holes in a liar’s lies. Alright,” he folds his hands behind his head. “I’ll follow you, Akamatsu-chan, this seems pretty not boring.”

“But,” Shirogane says. “Who else would lie? Are they trying to protect the culprit, too?”

“I don’t think this is about the culprit,” Kaede says. “I think it’s about the motive.”

“Harumaki already told us he saw the motive,” Momota says. “So that already makes him pretty suspicious.”

“The only one,” Hoshi says. “I’m the only one who saw the motive, which means, yes, I am suspicious.”

Kaede shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s true either, but I also think the person that saw the motive is keeping it secret from us, too.”

“Everyone’s always keeping secrets,” Tenko says softly. “Everyone always lies, and Tenko is so tired of it…”

“Aw,” Ouma says. “That’s really sad, Chabashira-chan… I guess this whole conversation would be pretty frustrating if you hadn’t seen the Flashback Light that was hidden in the woods.”

Kaede suddenly whips towards him. “The what?”

Momota presses a hand to his forehead. “Well that fucking answers that about who was lying…”

“Of course it was fucking Ouma!” Iruma says. “Who the hell else would’ve been lying!?”

“Harukawa-san,” Kaede says. “She was the person who I was trying to get to confess.”

Maki glares. “And you were intending to drag it out and catch me in a contradiction?”

Kaede says, “You already lied about seeing the motive after Kaito told you everyone would believe in you. Obviously you had already made the decision to withhold information.”

“And apparently that was a wise choice,” Maki says. “As I am being doubted now without saying anything even after someone else already confessed to lying.”

Kiibo’s voice rings out, “Did… Ouma-kun only say that to move the conversation forward?”

Kaede sighs as she hears Ouma begin to giggle. She pinches the bridge of her nose. “It seems like it.”

“Actually,” Shirogane says. “That plainly makes a lot of sense… I found the Flashback Light in the basement, and I thought they only missed it because everything was so messed up, but since that isn’t the case…”

“It means either shortstack one or two had it,” Iruma says. “And horseface went to go jerk off by himself for a while, didn’t he?”

Ouma says, “Me and Harukawa-chan were the only two people to ever go off on our lonesome, and she was just boring and never left the entrance hall.”

“So you saw the Flashback Light and dropped it or something when Hoshi-kun was chasing you?” Kaede asks. “And the Flashback Light was also the motive?”

“Wait,” Momota says. “Hold up—wasn’t the Flashback Light supposed to be about the outside world or something? And if that was also the motive, and the motive made Hoshi wanna die then…”

“Wow, wow, wow!” says Ouma. “My beloved Momota-chan said something super smart! I’m so proud of you!”

Momota just shakes his head. “Guess that means I guessed right…”

“You did,” Ouma says. “At least, you guessed right that the Flashback Light showed something super extra horrible that would totally explain why Hoshi-chan’s acting the way he is.”

Hoshi sends his a dark glare. “So you think you know everything then.”

“I do!” Ouma says. “After all, solving this case is a piece of cake if you had all the information I did.”

“Which means you also knew the culprit before we even started,” Kaede says. “And you know how they did it.”

“Well, yeah,” he answers nonchalantly. “But you guys would all cry and call me a liar if I just said everything outright, _and_ it would totally ruin the game.”

Tenko says, “Then tell us already! How can you be so—”

“Wait,” Momota says sharply. “Kaede, you said you thought Harumaki saw the motive earlier… was it because she was also talking about Kiibo killing himself?”

Maki goes silent. Leaving Kaede to swallow as she says, “That’s right. Hoshi-kun and Harukawa-san were the two who were the most confident in that theory, while it just seemed off to the rest of us.”

“And if the motive is as awful as Ouma says it is,” Momota says. “God,” he runs a hand over his face. “Just how fucked are we?”

Kaede sighs. “I doubt any of them are about to tell us, which means we just have to—”

“The outside world is gone,” Maki says.

Her words stop even the noises of the slightest shifting in the room. Kaede works her mouth uselessly for a few moments, attempting to process her confession as Kiibo says, “The outside world…”

Hoshi speaks up, “the Flashback we saw earlier only had part of the story. The truth is there’s nothing left…”

Ouma has a very soft smile on his face as he says, “and that’s the reason both of them were keeping quiet. Harukawa-chan was trying to protect us, and Hoshi-chan,” his grin turns dark, “Hoshi-chan was trying to throw the trial.”

Hoshi doesn’t seem angry when he responds—just exhausted. “What of it?”

Tenko shakes her head rapidly. “Y-You—you were trying to kill us all!?”

“Th-this,” Shirogane says suddenly looking very pale. “This can’t be happening.”

Iruma jabs a finger at Maki. “You’re a fucking liar!” she screams. “All of you are fucking lying to try and trick us! There’s no _fucking_ way any of that bullshit is true!”

“Wait—fucking wait!” Momota shouts suddenly. “That can’t fucking be true—what about the stupid motive videos and shit? Were those fake or—when were they made!?”

“Don’t know,” Hoshi replies coldly. “But it turns out there’s nothing for any of us outside of here.”

“And inside here,” Ouma says. “Is an evil mastermind trying to kill us all while we bloodily turn on each other at the drop of a hat.”

Kaede just stares in horror at the situation in front of her. “There’s nothing… and,” she looks at Hoshi, “and you were trying to… trying to mercy kill us.”

Hoshi looks at the ground as he says, “our options are either we stay in this school with someone trying to make us all kill each other hiding among us for the rest of our lives… or we die.”

“No, no, no,” Iruma says, now raking her hands through her hair. “Shut up! That’s not fucking true! We’re already in hell, you just can’t—”

“Tell everyone the truth?” Ouma asks. “Why? I thought you guys loved the truth—that’s why you made everyone expose their secrets, right? It was all for the best because it was the truth, don’t you think so?”

Kaede bites her lip. “This was… the only way to make sure we would survive this trial.”

“But,” Tenko mutters to the ground, “Is there really nothing left? Has everyone been killing each other to escape into nothing?” She looks to Kaede, tears already forming in her eyes. “After everything that’s happened… we do want to survive,” and it’s obvious she’s pleading with Kaede to give her an answer, “Don’t we?”

“Of,” Kaede can’t help but suddenly feel her resolve start to crumble. “Of course we do—we can’t just give up just because… because there’s nothing left.”

Maki says, “And this is why I chose to stay quiet.” She simply sighs and crosses her arms. “It was inevitable you would all react this way—sparing you seemed like a mercy.”

“N-No—No!” Iruma says, her entire body beginning to tremble. “Th-That’s not true—you’re just fucking lying—”

Kiibo says, “Iruma-san, please calm dow—”

“We—we can’t be the only people left,” she says. “We can’t be the only fucking people left! You’re trying to fucking trick us into—”

“It’s the truth,” Hoshi says. “And I say we weigh our options.”

Momota breathes out, “what the fuck does that mean?”

“It means we vote for someone who we know is innocent,” Hoshi says. “Or we refuse to vote at all—either way, we can just end our suffering here, and whoever’s watching us for their own amusement won’t have their game anymore.”

“So we all just die…” Shirogane says, now ghostly pale. “That’s… that’s our best option…”

Kaede feels her control over the situation slip away rapidly. “N-No! Everyone wait—we can’t just… we can’t just do something like that.”

“Why not?” Hoshi asks. “There’s nothing on the outside, and Ouma’s said a hundred times over that the only thing in here is a bunch of murderers. If we keep making ourselves go on, all it’ll do is give the mastermind something to laugh at before we kill each other off slower.”

“That’s,” Kaede says as the deep hopelessness of his logic begins to catch up with her. “That’s not… we—we have to do something, anything else…”

Hoshi just shakes his head. “If you have other suggestions, I’m listening. Think I’ve learned that looking for a reason to live’ll only just cause more suffering, but you’re welcome to try.”

“I…” Kaede says. She glances around the room at the increasingly hopeless faces surrounded her, each presenting their own unique reaction to what is possibly pure, calculated despair. “I…”

_(Present your Argument)_

“There’s nothing left for us,” Hoshi says. “That’s the secret of the outside world.”

Tenko rubs at her eyes as tears begin to stream down her face. “Everyone who’s died—it was all for nothing…”

Iruma keeps chanting to herself. “This has to be a lie, this has to be a lie, this has to be a fucking lie…”

“Is there really no hope?” Shirogane asks almost absently, eyes focused somewhere distant as a nervous sweat began to break out on her forehead. “Is our only choice really to just give up and die?”

Momota says, “We can’t just—we can’t just give up,” his voice falters slightly, and his words sound far too hallow for comfort, “we need to keep fighting… we can’t just…”

“I told you,” Maki says. “It would have been better for everyone not to know.”

Kiibo’s voice echoes, “Is this… despair?”

And Kaede finds herself suddenly at a loss. Their words seem to repeat in circles, talking about how it’s all hopeless, how dying if their only option, if they live, they’ll all only keep suffering.

She hears Kiibo again, asking if there really is no hope.

Ouma says, “Akamatsu-chan, I said this was the truth, but,” he smiles, “it’s a truth the mastermind told us—and a lie can easily become the truth if you don’t let anything contradict it.

“So,” he continues. “We should all just die here—is that the truth?”

_(BREAK)_

“No!” Kaede suddenly shouts. “No! Everyone,” she turns to the group as a whole. “Everyone, shut up and listen to me.”

“Kaede?” Momota says, looking up at her. “You—what are you…”

“I’m telling you all to think,” she says, summoning as much authority as she can. “Think about this motive, and think about who gave it to us.”

Maki simply raises an eyebrow at her. “Monokuma?”

“And we’ve suddenly decided that we can trust him?” Kaede says. “We all decided the last motive was impossible, so why do we believe this one?”

Her small seeds of doubt for their situation spur Iruma into saying, “Y-Yeah! That’s what I’m saying!”

“And earlier,” Kaede continues. “Kaito pointed out that this contradicts the earlier motive of the videos. One of them has to be a lie, and we can’t just accept that the best path is to just die and not discover which it is.”

“So,” Maki says. “Your answer is… we just deny it? Even if we saw it with our own eyes?”

Kaede feels her throat tighten. “I’m saying we keep thinking for ourselves. As long as we’re in this game, the mastermind has complete control over what they decide is real or not. And if this is the motive they gave us, then it means they want us to all die here.”

“The mastermind,” Tenko says, clenching her fists. “They also want us to just die?”

“Or maybe,” Ouma says. “They want just one person to die—one person who could make it through the tunnels and might be feeling kinda down after the mastermind sent their buddy off to his death.”

Hoshi glares. “Are you trying to say this was just a trick meant for me?”

“Not a trick,” Ouma says. “Personally, I think calling it a trap makes more sense.”

“None of what you’re saying makes sense,” he bites back.

“I’m saying,” he presses a finger to his lips. “That there was a smashed microscope in Gonta’s lab after his death—now why would anyone do something like that? To me it looked like someone was trying to hide evidence…”

Hoshi narrows his eyes. “And you think the mastermind targeted me over that?”

Ouma grins. “Could be! I’m just throwing out theories here, Hoshi-chan.”

Kaede opts to interrupt, asking, “Hoshi-kun, I do remember you and Gonta-kun having found something earlier—right before Gonta-kun’s death…” her words seem to still some of Hoshi’s anger and his gaze shifts to the ground as she continues. “It’s just… strange to think that if you found something secret the mastermind would only target one of you.”

“Think I get it,” Momota says suddenly. “There’s always, like, some hidden meaning or shit behind the motives right? So was this one just targeted at Hoshi or something like that?”

Kaede fiddles with her hat. “From what we’ve talked about, I think it’s certainly possible.”

“And you also think I’m an idiot who fell for it,” Hoshi says. Kaede opens her mouth to contradict him, but he just raises a hand. “Don’t try and make excuses for me—I won’t accept them, and I doubt anyone here wants to listen to how sorry they should feel for the guy who almost got them all killed.”

His eyes noticeably dart towards Tenko for a moment before returning to the ground. Hoshi pulls his hat down lower. “If you’ll still believe a word I have to say, Kiibo was already dead when I went to the library. Only thing I did was pick up the murder weapon which was right next to his body.”

Kaede nods. “Thank you, Hoshi-kun. I think that confirms what I thought earlier.”

“So we’re still going through with this?” Maki says. “Even if Hoshi was tricked, we’re still just going to ignore the fact that the outside world is destroyed and keep playing Monokuma’s game?”

Kaede turns to her, and, for once, she isn’t entirely unsympathetic to the other girl as she says, “Hoshi-kun laid it out for us earlier pretty well. Right now our only options are to either get through this class trial and try and figure out what’s actually going on, or die.” She shifts to address the others as a whole. “I’m aware a lot of people here probably don’t trust me—and I’m about to give you one more reason not to—but, right now, I refuse to just die here without knowing why we’ve been put through everything we have.”

Maki says, “And that means outing the culprit, doesn’t it?”

“That’s right,” Kaede says. She takes another breath. “The truth is that there was a trap set in the library, and the only person who had the ability to do such a thing is Iruma-san.”

Iruma jerks her head to her, seeming genuinely confused. “The hell are you talking about?”

“Iruma-san,” Kaede says, voice that of a disapproving parent. “Did you set a trap in the library?”

She waves a hand, more annoyed than anything else. “Okay, yeah—fine I set a fucking trap, but it was complete failure.” She moves to tick off on her fingers, “first of all, it was supposed to target Ouma, which didn’t fucking happen, and second, there wasn’t a statue or anything, so the entire thing was just a big tease, alright?”

“No,” Kaede says. “It wasn’t. Hoshi-kun just said he picked up the murder weapon to try and hide what had happened.”

“Okay,” Iruma says. “But still—Kiibs’s the victim! Maybe I set a fucking trap and was planning to use you as my alibi or something or _maybe_ frame spacecase, but none of that crap matters because it didn’t work.”

Shirogane says, “Did you just tell us your entire plan to kill Ouma-kun?”

“Wait,” Momota says. “What even was this fucking trap? I didn’t see shit while I was in the library with Ouma.”

“I also plainly didn’t see anything out of ordinary when I went to go investigate Kiibo-kun’s body,” Shirogane adds.

Kaede swallows. “It’s because you didn’t know what to look for.”

“Something about the books,” Hoshi says suddenly, eyes still fixed on the ground. “They seemed to bother you during the investigation…”

“They did,” Kaede answers. “Because… I recognized how they were arranged.”

“Was there something strange about books being set up in a library?” Maki asks.

“With this specific setup, yes,” Kaede says. “Because, like I said before, this was a copycat crime.”

Tenko sends her an increasingly nervous look. “Kaede-san? Are you talking about…”

Kaede tries to give her as much of a reassuring smile as she can. “I am.”

Momota looks between them and says, “So, did I miss something? I’m not really following what’s going on here. I mean, if it was a copycat crime, doesn’t that mean it resembled one of the other cases?”

“Oh,” Shirogane says. “There were folders in Saihara-kun’s lab that had pictures of crime scenes—did the culprit just follow one of those?”

“And Akamatsu looked through those enough to just recognize the setup from one immediately?” Maki says. “Even if she is obsessed with Saihara, I find that hard to believe.”

Tenko cuts in, “W-Well, maybe there’s a chance that’s the truth,” she turns to Kaede, openly giving her an out, “Right, Kaede-san?”

Before she can speak, Ouma says, “Except—that’s wrong! So, Akamatsu-chan!” he beams at her. “No running away—why don’t you tell everyone why you and Iruma-chan knew the same trap! Ooh, ooh! And why Iruma-chan used it!”

Iruma’s starting to sweat, but she insists, “You can go over it as much as you fucking want, but I keep telling you it didn’t work.”

“Iruma-san has already admitted that she created the trap,” Tenko says. “Tenko does not see a reason why we need to further confirm this.”

“Huh?” Ouma says titling his head. “You don’t? What about being fair?”

“Fair to who, shitstain?” Iruma asks.

He throws his arms to the side. “Why to everyone else, of course! I mean, Akamatsu-chan’s spent this whole trial exposing all of our dirty secrets, so why doesn’t she share one of hers!”

Tenko glares down at him. “Ouma-san! Kaede-san has been doing everything this trial to help all of us—we have no reason to doubt her.”

“You should doubt everyone, Chabashira-chan” he says, voice suddenly dropping a few decibels. “Especially since us and Shirogane-chan are the only ones without any blood on our hands now.”

Momota frowns. “Wait—only you, guys? I mean,” he rubs the back of his head. “I know a lot of us tried shit, but,” he looks around the room. “Is that… really true?”

“I think it is,” Kaede says, hugging herself. Her hat’s pulled down just so, and she can barely see anyone as she says, “I recognized the trap in the library because it’s the same as the one I used to kill Amami-kun.”

Maki rolls her eyes. “You mean the one from your ridiculous fake confession?”

“No,” Kaede answers, voice still calm. “Everything I said was true—Iruma-san even took pictures of the library floor plan after the murder… they never came up during the trial because of Saihara-kun’s confession, but she used them as a model for her own plan.”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “Iruma-chan was really mean when she came to take back her drone after Akamatsu-chan tattled on me! She grabbed all of the pictures, too!”

Momota stares openmouthed for a moment before turning to Iruma. “Hey, is that true? Did Kaede actually make that trap she told us about?”

Iruma fidgets under the sudden attention. “W-Well, I don’t have the fucking pictures with me, but yeah.” Then her she turns defensive. “A-And maybe I built my trap off of that, but I keep telling you that it doesn’t matter! The trap was designed to let a statue roll along the top of the books to pick up momentum and shit when power bottom walked through the door. But _obviously_ it was a complete fucking failure since that didn’t happen.”

“Iruma,” Maki says. “Shut up.” Iruma squeaks as Maki turns back to Kaede. “Are you trying to tell us you actually killed Amami? Again?”

Kaede sighs. “I know you don’t believe me, but it’s the truth—I think the library is probably still setup that way, too, if anyone wants to see for themselves.”

“Akamastu,” Hoshi says gravelly. “You seem serious, but the fact that we’re alive right now after voting for Saihara means you’re lying.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know how to explain that—only that Monokuma lied because everything I said at that trial was true… and,” she turns to Iruma, “the fact that Iruma-san was able to build her trap at all proves that.”

“I have to say,” Ouma begins. “That Iruma-chan’s plan is pretty clever, even if it did come from a gross pig like her. Kill me with a plan that would guilt Akamatsu-chan into staying quiet, _and_ buddy up to her so she’d feel bad about accusing you at the trial, especially with her track record of protecting culprits. Ooh!” he starts to bounce excitedly, “ooh! And frame Momota-chan to make him and Harukawa-chan too defensive and cagey to actually help with anything!”

“Well, obviously none of that crap happened!” Iruma says. “I get it—I’m a shitty liar, and I built a fucking trap in the library, but it didn’t work so—”

“No,” Kaede says. “I think it worked perfectly.”

Iruma snaps her head to her. “The fuck does that mean? If it worked, then Ouma would be dead as dicks.”

Momota adds in, “Don’t sound proud of that.”

“Well, it’s the fucking truth!” she says, throwing her hands in the air. “I had the stupid fucking log at the ready, and when his name came up and I pressed the button on my phone to delete a book holding back the statue, something obviously went wrong!” She presses a hand to her chin. “Maybe I fucked up the loading screen time? Or the trajectory?”

“So you’re not the culprit because… you just miscalculated?” Shirogane hesitantly asks.

“No,” Ouma says coldly. “I was the one who miscalculated. I thought that Iruma-chan would care more about Kiiboy being alive than me being dead, but,” he folds his hands behind his head. “Guess I was wrong.”

His words catch Iruma’s attention enough that she barks out, “A-And what the fucking hell is that supposed to mean!?” she jabs a finger at him. “If you’re fucking saying I didn’t care about Kiibo, then I’m gonna come over there and shove that podium up your pasty ass!”

Kaede says, “But… I think he’s right. Iruma-san, you said you were reading the logs, right?” She tries to resummon her confidence. “Which means you would have had to notice that something strange was going on… that people weren’t where they were supposed to be.”

Iruma looks at her searchingly for a moment, then all of sudden she claps a hand to her mouth in absolute horror. “N-No—fuck, no that can’t be—y-you,” tears begin to well up in her eyes, and she nearly steps backwards off of her podium. “No—no, fuck no—if that, if that…”

Kaede had seen Iruma burst into random fits of panic many times, but unlike before, she doesn’t scream or throw out shallow lies. Instead, her shoulders begin to heave as her entire body shakes under the weight of her sudden sobs. Her words come out hurried and nearly unintelligible, “no, no, no—I-I d-didn’t—I-I can’t fucking be,” and she reaches out with one hand to steady herself on her podium as her legs seem to all but give out from under her. The last words Kaede can catch before her muttering falls apart completely are “can’t f-fucking die l-like—like that…”

The others stare silently at Iruma for a moment, with only Kiibo’s voice softly calling out for her rising above the sound of sobs. Kaede feels her throat tighten. She pushed Momota, had she pushed Iruma, too? Every word Iruma said to her in the virtual world comes rushing back through her head as Kaede wonders how she could have missed this—how she couldn’t have seen her friend committing murder right in front of her.

Iruma’s crying hasn’t subsided in the least, and Kaede remembers before how she had said there was no justice in the class trials—there are no ideals she can summon to quell the reality that she is about to send someone she considered a friend too consumed with crying to defend themselves to their death. For a moment, Kaede wonders if it’s still too late to retract all of her reasoning, put her words against Hoshi’s proposal for an incorrect vote back in her mouth, convince herself that maybe she really is okay with dying here in this horrible place.

Then Maki says, “So we have our culprit then. Monokuma,” she turns to address the bear, “I think we’ve wasted enough time—let’s start the vote already.”

“Geeze, Harukawa-chan,” Ouma says. “You’re so cruel—I almost feel sorry for Iruma-chan…”

“Prolonging this any further would be cruel,” she counters. “As is giving out false hope.”

Her words only cause a brief hitch in Iruma’s sobs before they return, perhaps even stronger than before.

Momota tears his eyes away from her form, mumbling, “this is so fucked up…” to the floor.

Shirogane wrings her hands, saying, “even though Kiibo-kun isn’t dead… why do things have to be like this? It’s just too horrible…”

Kaede squeezes her eyes shut and says the only words she can. “Iruma-san, I’m so sorry…”

There is no other choice before her but to vote when Kiibo’s voice suddenly rises in volume. “I… I do not have all the information of this case,” he says. “And I know I am not going to get a vote, however, Iruma-san said many times that she would never harm me, and I believe her.”

“Kiibo-kun?” Kaede says. “I know… this is hard to accept, but—”

“But if something is hard to accept,” he says. “There must be a reason for that. I may no longer have my inner voice to guide me, but I still have my own thoughts and my own voice,” there’s a strength lining his words even as they echo through the static of the humble speakers he’s been reduced to, “and if Iruma-san cannot argue for herself, then I will do so for her.”

Iruma mumbles, “Kiibo?” between her sniffles and holds him a little tighter to her shaking body.

“Don’t be stupid,” Maki says. “Whether you believe in her or not, what you’re doing isn’t a mercy—Iruma already knows she’s going to be executed.” She crosses her arms. “And I thought robots were supposed to be logical about things like this.”

“I am being logical,” Kiibo responds. “And my logic is that, Iruma-san’s reaction aside, there is still no concrete proof other than Akamatsu-san and Ouma-kun’s word that her trap worked. And I also believe it is highly illogical for someone as kind as Iruma-san to ever hurt someone she cares about.”

Kaede can’t help but wince as Kiibo’s words seem to only twist the knife further. Iruma lets out a particularly choked sob as he again assures her that it’s going to be okay.

 

_(THEORY ARMAMENT)_

“I believe in Iruma-san, and I believe it is simply illogical for her to hurt me.”

“Perhaps she did set a trap, but she has already explained that it failed.”

“That was wrong of her, but it is irrelevant to my case as the victim.” 

“I find it highly illogical that Iruma-san would explain her plans in so much detail if she was the culprit.”

“She said she would activate her trap when Ouma-kun walked through the library door.”

“However, he did that many times without being injured—it is therefore doubtful that Iruma-san’s trap succeeded.”

“Hoshi-kun has already admitted to tampering with the crime scene.” 

“The most logical scenario is that Iruma-san is being framed.”

“Her decision to repair me to the best of her abilities also does not correlate to her attempting to do me harm.”

“That combined with the lack of proof is more than enough to cast doubt on her guilt.” 

**“And therefore, by the very fact that I am the victim, it is highly illogical to believe Iruma-san could be the culprit.”**

_(BREAK)_

“Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “You’re right—Iruma-san would never purposefully hurt you, but it wasn’t you she thought was coming through the door when she triggered her trap.”

Kiibo frowns as Iruma just shakes, now reduced to whimpers through sheer exhaustion. “How do you know that?” he says.

“The logs from the card readers,” Keade answers. “They were recording our movements, and I think it’s safe to say that’s how she was planning to time her trap. As soon as someone with Ouma-kun’s card made to go through the door, she could set it to go off… and that’s what happened.”

Tenko adds. “When Tenko as looking through the logs, it seemed like Kiibo-san simply stopped going places after a certain point, and Ouma-san was supposedly with Iruma-san and Kaede-san before going to the library, which Kaede-san told Tenko was wrong… because Kiibo-san was with them.”

“So what,” Momota says. “Ouma and Kiibo switched cards then?”

Hoshi sighs. “When Akamatsu left to get the sign… Ouma started messing with Kiibo by pulling on his arms and running around him—didn’t think anything of it at the time, but that’s probably when he made the switch.”

“Does that mean Ouma-kun suspected something was wrong with the ID cards immediately?” Shirogane says. “Is he a mind reader? Or does he just have good intuition or something?”

“Ouma left the mansion by himself to explore,” Maki says. “If he wanted to test the system, he has the opportunity.”

Kaede glances to him. “Ouma-kun, when you said you miscalculated—you switched with Kiibo-kun because you thought Iruma-san would just stop if she thought he was in danger.” He looks coolly back at her, and Kaede presses, “that’s right, isn’t it?”

Ouma folds his hands behind his head. “So it is. You know, you guys are starting to get better at solving mysteries—you’re really becoming pros at this!”

With Iruma’s sobbing still echoing dully in the background, Kaede can’t find the strength to argue with him, and simply looks back to see the projection of Kiibo’s face absolutely heartbroken while Iruma just trembles on the spot. Very gently she says, “Kiibo-kun, I know you missed a lot, so hopefully I can clear up any questions you have, and finally end this horrible trial.”

He doesn’t respond other than to give a stiff nod. Iruma mumbles out another apology to him, and Kaede takes one more breath before she begins her explanation.

“The virtual world was a trap to begin with,” Kaede says. “Before we went in to it, it was heavily modified to remove anything that could potentially be dangerous with the exception of a few weighted statues. The culprit probably decided a trap they could trigger remotely would be the safest since it would give them an alibi… an alibi they would get by being with the person who’s trap they based their’s off of.

“Basically, in the basement of the virtual mansion, it was set up to allow a statue to roll along the top of some carefully arranged books and land on whoever the target was while they were stuck in a loading screen, meaning they’d be unable to hear it or react to it in any way.” She spares a fleeting glance to Ouma, “the culprit also chose Ouma-kun as their target, and to ensure they would activate it when he went through the door, they set up a system of card readers that would supposedly only allow so many people through each door. I assume their plan was that Ouma-kun would enter with someone else and then be killed, making whoever was with him highly suspicious.

“The culprit also took poison from Saihara-kun’s lab earlier that they were probably going to use to frame someone since they could also log people out remotely, but when everyone actually went to the computer room, Tenko-san decided to stay behind, which ruined that part of their plan… but even with that, they decided to still go through with it.

“When we were actually in the virtual world, and it was explained that people could die in there…” she searches for the words for a moment before deciding on, “a few… others made plans for themselves to try and end the game by killing Ouma-kun, however, all of them would fail. And Ouma-kun already seemed to know something was wrong since he purposefully switched his ID card with Kiibo-kun’s, assuming the culprit would stop their plan… but that didn’t happen.

“We split up at that point, and the culprit purposefully cut off connection between the two groups because they were probably assuming they would activate their trap during that time, however, due to the switch, the moment they were waiting for never came, and after a while, we decided to just go meet with the others,” she takes a breath, shaking her head before adding, “I was teasing Kiibo-kun at the time, so he went ahead of us while we stayed back to search the church a little more.

“Kiibo-kun then met with Shirogane-san, and since he had my ID as well, they assumed they could go meet the others in the basement, not knowing they didn’t have to abide by the multiple people rule at all. They met with Hoshi-kun and Ouma-kun who had just finished fighting, and Kiibo-kun decided it would make sense for him to investigate the library since only Kaito—who had been mysteriously logged out earlier—and Ouma-kun had been there.

“He and Hoshi-kun went, but when Kiibo-kun unknowingly used Ouma-kun’s card to get through the door, the culprit triggered their trap, thinking their victim would be someone else,” Iruma’s sobs hitch for a moment, and Kiibo remains eerily silent as she continues. “but… that wasn’t the case. Their trap succeeded, and Kiibo-kun was effectively killed in the virtual world. Hoshi-kun would enter after him and pick up the statue used to kill him to try and hide what had happened, but… that doesn’t change who the culprit is.”

Kaede takes a breath, then, “And the culprit can only be Iruma-san. The use of the virtual world, the knowledge of what was actually true about it, the ability to create that trap—she was the only person who had all of those things… and that is the truth of this horrible case.”

Kiibo stays silent a moment longer before softly saying, “I see.”

Iruma chokes out, “P-Please, K-Kiibo—I’m, I’m sorry, I-I never meant t-to—to…”

Her words become undecipherable again, and Kiibo says very gently, “I know…”

Monokuma says, “Well then! I can really only listen to whining and complaining so long before I get bored, bored, bored! Soooo, I say we get straight to the super fun, super exciting, super despairing, and super something else voting time!” He brings his paws to his mouth. “And it’s not just like I want to get on with the execution to teach a few naughty children a lesson.”

The Monokubs begin to protest at his threat, but Kaede pays them little mind as the screen lights up in front of her. Part of her thinks that she’s the real culprit behind this crime, but… she looks up briefly to the others, to Iruma as Kiibo keeps talking to her to give her whatever comfort he can before her death.

Kaede touches Iruma’s picture and pulls her hand away again as fast as she can, as if that would somehow take back the action.

She has no idea if Iruma actually managed to vote at all when Monokuma pops up to announce voting time is over. He gives his usual speech as if they hadn’t already gone over all the details of the crime in painful detail, and the screen lights up behind him to show a unanimous vote.

At the sight of it, Iruma finally does collapse to her knees, clutching the remains of Kiibo to her chest. Kaede hurriedly steps off of her podium to rush to her side, barely sparing a glance to the others as she passes them to kneel next to Iruma. Tenko seems to recognize her action and quickly moves to do the same, at the girl’s other side.

The others seem to have little to say as they assemble in a loose group around them.

Monokuma’s voice echoes around the room to tell them that they got it right once more as Kaede reaches out to offer a supportive hand on one of Iruma’s shaking shoulders. Kaede has seen this happen three times before, but now it hits her that she is staring at someone who is about to die.

She is also vaguely aware that the others likely don’t feel as much sympathy for Iruma as she does—the other girl was obnoxious, insulting, and planning to get away with murder at the cost of all of their lives. However, the person she killed still softly calls out her name.

Kaede has no idea what to say other than more apologies that mean little now. Tenko also offers comforting words, but Kaede has come to realize that Tenko would comfort almost anyone in pain. Behind her, she distantly hears Momota cursing under his breath and Shirogane fidgeting nervously, but others remain silent.

Then, Maki says, “Iruma never saw the motive, so do you feel like finally giving us answers?”

Tenko whips her head towards her. “Harukawa-san!” she snaps. “Do not speak to Iruma-san like—”

“It was probably just the Flashback Light,” Ouma says. “You know, the one that said the world was only partially destroyed, especially since it seemed like Iruma-chan was pretty choked up about hearing the _entire_ world was gone.”

“Did she, um,” Shirogane says haltingly. “Did she want to get out to see for herself?”

The answer to her question comes from Kiibo, saying, “Iruma-san would tell me sometimes about how she wanted to help give back to the world with her inventions… if the world was in danger, it would only be logical that she would want to help.”

“And she didn’t know the whole story,” Hoshi says gravelly. “That there was nothing left to begin with…”

Momota says, “We can’t know that’s for sure either like Kaede said… ‘specially since we’re relying on fucking Monokuma.”

Iruma doesn’t protest their reasoning, which Kaede takes as enough confirmation, and she says again, “I’m so sorry things turned out like this.”

“It’s not your fault,” Momota says with a sigh, “or just Iruma’s—almost everyone—”

“Hey,” Ouma interrupts. “Why are you making excuses for a killer? Noble or not, Iruma-chan was planning to let us all die, even her precious Kiiboy!”

“That is not true!” Kiibo quickly bites back. “Iruma-san would not—”

“But think if her plan succeeded,” Ouma says. “I’d be dead, and she’d go to the trial trying to trick us all in order to get away.”

“I,” Iruma manages, still breathing heavily, “I—I would’ve saved him—I was always planning to f-fucking save him…”

Ouma shrugs. “Then you still would have just killed the rest of us.”

Kaede’s head snaps to him. “Is there a point in making her feel worse, or are you really just that cruel?”

Ouma stares at her for a moment before narrowing his eyes. “Akamatsu-chan, did you already forget? Iruma-chan tried to kill me, though I guess it makes sense you’d take the killer’s side—you two have a lot in common after all.”

Kaede glares at him as Maki interrupts to say, “That’s right, isn’t it,” her cold gaze turns on Kaede. “You’re trying to tell us that you killed Amami again—and this time you supposedly have proof.”

“Harumaki,” Momota says with a pointed look to Iruma. “We can talk about this later.”

“Yup, yup, yup!” Monokuma suddenly says. “Because now, we have to get to the very special punishment I’ve prepared for Iruma Miu: the Ultimate Inventor!”

That sparks something in Iruma, and she mumbles, “I—I can’t fucking—I don’t wanna f-fucking d-die,” she shakes her head. “N-Not like th-that…” then, she jerks her head up and seems to finally see the others, “s-someone!” she calls. “Someone—fucking, fucking kill me right now!”

Kaede stares at her in too much horror to speak, leaving Tenko to say, “Iruma-san, please calm—”

Iruma brushes her off, shouting again, “Someone kill me right now! D-Don’t let them execute me!”

No one responds, and Monokuma begins his regular chant, she shouts again, “Please!”

Kaede can barely process her request as the remaining three Exisals appear, the green one saying in its routine, stilted voice, “WE CANNOT ALLOW THAT. IT IS NECESSARY TO ALLOW YOUR FRIENDS TO BE PUNISHED IN ORDER TO GET ALONG.”

Their red lights begin to bear down on them, and Kaede can’t help but vividly remember the last time this happened in a trial. She almost unconsciously begins to move in front of Iruma when she suddenly notices the other girl put Kiibo down to pull a small remote out of her pocket.

“Iruma-san?” Kaede says, looking at her in confusion as she hurriedly taps at it.

“I,” Iruma says, staggering to her feet. “I am not getting fucking executed.”

The Exisals begin to mock her words in their usual routine when Iruma points her remote at them, causing the red one in front to suddenly seize up.

The other two stare at it in shock, and behind them Monokuma appears to start sweating bullets in spite of being a robot.

“I refuse,” Iruma says again. “ _To fucking die here!_ ”

Her fingers fly over the buttons the remote, and the Exisal pivots to suddenly direct its guns towards the other two over the shouts of all three remaining Monokubs.

Kaede forces herself to tear her eyes away to look back up at Iruma sweating furiously as she continues to seemingly pilot the Exisal like a remote controlled toy. Kaede pulls herself up to her feet, and yells over the sounds of the battle now waging in the trial room, “Your remote controls the Exisals?”

“Controls any fucking machine!” Iruma shouts back. “Just have to—shit!”

She screams and ducks down with Kaede quickly following suit as the pink Exisal suddenly opens fire, and a spray of bullets embed themselves in the side of Iruma’s piloted one, while the rest ricochet off the heavy army. That is enough to spur the other students into action, and Kaede distantly hears Momota shouting about forcing the exits open over the ringing in her ears.

More bullets fire, and Iruma leaps to the side, still clutching Kiibo with one hand to her chest, while the others scramble for cover. For a moment Kaede just stays where she is, on her hands and knees on the ground, and seems to somehow only dully register a sharp pain suddenly burning down the length of her arm over the chaos.

It’s only when Tenko is physically pulling one of Kaede’s arms over her shoulder to get her to move does she see the streaks of blood flowing brightly against her white sleeve. Tenko screams, “Kaede-san, we need to move!”

She doesn’t respond other than a dismal nod as she does her best just to keep her feet under her. Only vaguely does she realize the three robots now seem engaged in some sort of wrestling match as Iruma opted to simply ram her piloted one into the other two.

The others have gathered at the doors to the elevator that are still sealed shut, and Kaede makes out the forms of Maki and Momota futilely attempting to pull them apart. Tenko begins to fuss at her side, saying something about putting pressure on the wound as she rummages through Kaede’s backpack one handedly to pull out her spare vest. She presses it towards Kaede saying, “You were only grazed, but please, hold this against it.”

Kaede follows her instructions, moving in a daze over simply processing her surroundings. Near them, Shirogane sits on the ground with her hands over her head, voice barely rising above the screeching noises of metal grinding into metal. “Is—is this what happens if Monokuma can’t execute someone!?”

Her question causes Kaede to look back over her shoulder to see Monokuma wildly banging his gavel against his usual bright red button, shouting about how he will have order in his court.

“Who fucking cares!?” Momota yells. “We’re all gonna die if we can’t get out of here!”

Kaede finds herself physically unable to respond, only looking dumbly over the others, casually registering that Hoshi and Ouma are crouched on the floor on the other side of the door, the former tugging his coat off to wrap around his knee. Tenko seems to notice at roughly the same time, calling back to Momota, “Who else has been shot?”

He turns to look at them, but any words he was about to say stop at the sight and sound of Iruma’s Exisal suddenly being slammed into the wall next to them under the weight of both of the other ones.

Kaede finds her first words after being shot only then, “She’s losing…”

It’s enough for Tenko to physically turn both of them around to better take in Iruma standing slightly apart from the others with Kiibo tucked under her arm, furiously pressing buttons on her remote. Kaede watches almost absently for a moment when she spies something familiar looking suddenly falling from the ceiling straight towards Iruma.

Momota manages to yell first, “Iruma, look out!”

And Iruma jerks her head up at his words just in time for the collar to clamp itself around her neck.

Her eyes widen, and she begins to scream as the force of it jerking her upward causes her to lose her grip on her remote and Kiibo, both clattering to the floor.

One of her hands starts to claw at her neck, while the other remains extended towards the ground, and Iruma’s last shout of, “Kiibo!” tells exactly what she was reaching for. “Kiibo, please! Help me!”

Iruma keeps screaming as the chain pulls her up, and the screens around the room finally light up in bright neon letters.

 

**GAME OVER**

**IRUMA MIU HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY**

**TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT**

She yells again for Kiibo to save her, and the last thing Kaede makes out is Ouma suddenly darting forward to snatch the remote and Monopad off of the ground before the execution starts in full.

 

**Ages of Invention: Reinventing the Wheel**

 

The chain around Iruma’s neck doesn’t release as it keeps dragging her up until it reaches a larger circular piece of the ceiling, and more clamps appear out of it to lock around her wrists and ankles.

It then begins to spin, and over Iruma’s screams, a strange projector seems to flick on, oddly counting down with a slight bounce to the numbers as if it were a particularly old film. The three remaining Monokubs emerging from their Exisals are suddenly raised to the ceiling in the same manner, only to be strapped to the still spinning wheel around her.

The projector flickers a lavishly written title reading, “The Stone Age,” as a large rock hammer suddenly smashes against the first Monokub. Then, it switches to “The Bronze Age,” a similar looking shiny and coppery hammer appears next. The spinning seems to pick up if at all possible, metal from the remains of the first two destroyed kubs flying around them as the screen reads “The Iron Age.” A last metal hammer swings down to destroy the last robot, leaving only Iruma and pieces of shrapnel embedded on the wheel. Even then, she still keeps shouting for Kiibo to help her.

Kaede dares to take her eyes off the sight for a second to see Ouma standing a few feet away, vaguely angling Kiibo up to let him see what’s happening.

Kaede’s eyes dart back up as the projection flickers again, this time reading, “The Execution Age,” and instead of a hammer, this time a large, wide blade like that of a guillotine appears. It slams down hard against the wheel once, missing to the side of her. Then again, on the other side. Distantly, Kaede hears Monokuma humming, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

The blade goes in for a third hit, and Iruma’s eyes widen and she lets out one last gasp before it makes contact with her neck.

If it weren’t for the ceiling suddenly cutting them off from as it shuts itself back down to its usual height, Kaede realizes that Iruma’s head likely would have fallen down to them.

The sheer thought of such a thing combined with the now excruciating pain in her arm is enough to cause Kaede to let her legs completely give out from under her, only Tenko’s quick shift in support prevent from her collapsing to the ground.

Kaede hears a dull static over everything as the other slowly regain their composure. Momota starts cursing as he always does, running both hands through his hair, while Tenko asks again, “Was anyone else shot or injured?”

Hoshi lets out a soft grunt at her question, and Shirogane mumbles something softly in response. But Kaede trains what little focus she has left in her on the sight of Maki striding over to Ouma and holding one hand out towards him. “Hand it over,” she says.

Ouma just shrugs at her before placing the Monopad in her hands. “Didn’t know you were such a fan of Kiiboy, Harukawa-chan.”

“Not, Kiibo,” Maki snaps. “Iruma’s remote.”

Ouma clicks his tongue. “You know—I don’t remember Iruma-chan leaving a will, sooo finders keepers, losers weepers!”

“The remote,” Maki repeats. “Now.”

Ouma starts to sniffle. “But it’s miiine! Harukawa-chan, you’re so me—”

“Both of you knock it the fuck off!” Momota shouts. They both turn to him, and he shouts. “The hell is the matter with you!? Iruma was just killed _seconds ago_ , and you’re fucking arguing over her stuff!? While you’re literally holding Kiibo who watched her fucking die!?”

The fact that both seem poised on the verge of saying the other one started it is enough to cause Momota to just turn around, leaving the two of them behind as he mutters darkly, “the fuck is wrong with everyone…”

As he walks away, Tenko snaps, “Kaede-san and Hoshi-san have both been shot—we need to get them as much medical attention as we can now.”

Ouma sticks his tongue out at Maki. “You heard her, Harukawa-chan!” he says skipping towards the door.

Maki glares, clenching her jaw as she stomps past them, all but shoving Kiibo into Tenko’s side as she passes, and muttering only, “You deal with him.”

Kaede idly stares at the Monopad, noting it appears to be turned off as Tenko awkwardly slips it under her free arm while still supporting Kaede with her other. The two girls shuffle towards the door, Shirogane bent over to offer similar support to Hoshi a few feet in front of them.

The elevator’s open now to take them away from the nearly demolished courtroom, and once the doors finally click shut to take the seven of them back up, Kaede leans all of her weight against Tenko as darkness overtakes her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And chapter four comes to a close a few days late! I am also afraid to announce that likely for the month of November and first half of December, I'm probably going to be switching to an every other week update schedule as my school work is about to intensify. 
> 
> But, that being said, I am amazed and so thankful for all the support this story has gotten, including a TV Tropes page now, which I am still floored by! So thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone!


	27. Daily Life X

_Amami Theater_

_“The end is approaching. It moves closer to you and to me even though I have already seen it. I lived through the end and came back again. The darkness is my end, but I saw an end before that. An ending the shined bright approached, and I lived through it._

_“I don’t know why I exist after my end. I don’t know why my heart has changed, and only in the dark can I see its halves laid out next to each other. My heart was changed. My heart was changed after the end._

_“Here there is mourning. There, there is mourning. Strife makes the end come quicker. Your heart will change faster. That’s the rule._

_“I have so many friends now. They hold their heads and their hearts and wish they made it to the end. I don’t know what the end is. I lived through it once. I can’t remember._

_“Even as the end comes, the mourning is not finished. Death is not finished. Death ends the game, but the game does not finish. The one who changed my heart and made my blood spills over my eyes is waiting for the end, too. They’re waiting for the death at the end. She’s waiting for death._

_“I can’t feel the ending coming up to meet me and my friends. I can’t feel anything. I can’t see anything. I can’t see my changed heart or the mourning or the strife._

_“I can’t see the end. I can’t see her. There is no her and there is no me and maybe there is no end. Maybe I was always nothing.”_

-

The first thing Kaede thinks is that her head really hurts. Her entire body seems to ache actually, but her head feels like the most pressing matter for some reason, even as her first attempts to shift herself as she blinks her eyes open cause all of her limbs to screech with pain.

She narrows her eyes against the light shining on her overhead and is forced to duck her head to look away from it altogether as a brief attempt at lifting her arm to block the light results in such a strong jolt of pain that she barely resists the urge to throw up. At her stirring, a shadow falls over her to block the light briefly, and Kaede has to take a moment to register the sounds of voices.

One voice asks, “She finally woken up?”

“Kaede-san,” the other voice says gently. “Kaede-san, please do not move your arm too much.”

Kaede blinks her eyes again, letting her vision swim back into focus to finally make out Tenko’s form hovering over her. “Tenko-san?” she asks, voice hoarse enough to make her wince.

Tenko notices this as well and quickly moves away to a small table scattered with a variety of increasingly odd things, though water bottles are among them. It’s then that Kaede registers she appears to be in one of the dorm rooms, lying down on the side of a bed with her injured arm propped up on a pillow and wrapped tightly with bandages.

It’s also then that she realizes she’s so far to the side of the bed because the other half is being occupied by Hoshi, sitting up slightly and with one of his legs also propped up on a pillow, covered with bandages just above his knee. Tenko hurries back over to her side with a bottle of water that Kaede takes absently as she asks, “Whose room are we in?”

“Tenko’s,” Tenko answers. “It’s not a good substitute for an infirmary, but it’s the only place Tenko could think of.”

“Already told you, it’s fine,” Hoshi says, staring at his hands in his lap. “And you’ve already done more than enough anyway—there’s nothing to apologize for.”

Tenko frowns at his words, and Kaede can feel enough tension looming between them to prompt her into saying, “So, um, are we going to be okay then? Even though we…” the end of the trial suddenly flashes back through her head with a sharp sting. “Were shot…”

Tenko nods curtly. “Tenko has never treated a bullet wound before, but she believes both of you were very lucky. From her examinations, Kaede-san was only grazed, and Hoshi-san’s appearances to have missed any bones or major arteries.” She lets out a sigh. “Honestly, Tenko thinks it was a miracle.”

“They weren’t really aiming for us anyway,” Hoshi says. “But still with the way some of those bullets were ricocheting.” He shakes his head. “Maybe we’re both actually the Ultimate Lucky student or something.”

Kaede smiles wryly, finding her voice after a few hesitant sips of water. “I’m not sure how lucky I feel right now, to be honest.”

Hoshi lets out a short, deprecating laugh. “Also true.” 

Kaede turns to Tenko again, “Was anyone else hurt?”

“No,” Tenko answers. “Or at least if they were, they decided not to tell Tenko and are walking around with a bullet injury.” She scowls shockingly darkly to herself. “Of course with the way people’ve been keeping secrets lately, Tenko can’t rule that out completely.”

That seems to spike enough shame in Hoshi that he hangs his head, and Kaede sees his small hands curl and uncurl slightly, as if attempting to physically grasp at something to say. Kaede opts to redirect the conversation again. “So, um, Tenko-san,” she says. “Where did you even get the stuff to help treat us?”

Tenko perks up slightly at her question. “Tenko was able to find some stuff to deal with sports injuries from her and Hoshi-san’s labs, and, uh,” she suddenly looks a little sheepish. “She also tried using the machine in the student store room to try and get stuff to maybe make you more comfortable, but…” Kaede follows her gaze to the coffee table covered in a variety of odd objects. “That was pretty hit or miss,” Tenko concludes. 

“I see,” Kaede says. 

“Um,” Tenko moves to begin shifting through the piles of stuff again. “There are cookies… somewhere if you want any. Both of you should mostly rest and try not to strain yourselves, so hopefully everything you need is here…”

Hoshi suddenly says, “I’m probably not going to be able to just walk around a whole lot.”

“No,” Tenko says tightly. “You won’t.”

She finds the odd, face-shaped cookies she had been looking for and returns to Kaede’s side before silently offering her a few. Kaede looks at them, questioning how safe eating something that had been likely sitting in the Monomonomachine for who knows how long is. With another glance to her, she decides to take a bite of one to be polite before quietly setting the rest of them between her and Hoshi.

They sit silently for another moment before Tenko softly volunteers, “Tenko tried talking to Kiibo-san a little, but he only turned himself on once to tell her he wanted to be alone…”

“Oh,” Kaede says, unsure how to respond. “He’s been through a lot…”

“He has,” Tenko agrees. “Tenko’s still carrying him around, so she’ll try and do her best to keep a watch over him.”

Hoshi lets out a sigh. “You really are doing everything alone…”

Kaede blinks for a second at his words as she realizes all of a sudden that nowhere in Tenko’s descriptions of events did she mention anyone helping her. Tenko seems to fidget slightly, somehow uncomfortable with whatever is being implied. Kaede asks, “Did you… take care of both of us and get all this stuff by yourself?”

Tenko bites her lip. She thinks a moment longer before carefully saying, “Tenko… didn’t ask, but none of the others seemed inclined to help…”

“That’s not really a surprise,” Hoshi says. “After what I pulled at the trial…” he shakes his head. “Anyway, you didn’t happen to spot any of the others while you were running around, did you Chabashira?”

Kaede frowns as she tries to sit up a little. “Actually, yeah—where are the others anyway?”

Tenko furrows her brow, working her mouth a little before finally saying, “Tenko was mostly focused on gathering supplies earlier, but she did talk to the others a little, and,” she looks nervously at Kaede, “they said they were going to the library…”

It’s not a surprise, but Kaede still squeezes her eyes shut and lets her head fall back against the pillows behind her. “Of course they are—that… that makes a lot of sense actually.”

“Tenko wasn’t sure what to say to them, so,” her eyes dart to the ground. “She just told them that Tenko wasn’t going, and that she was more concerned with taking care of you two than anything else.”

Hoshi closes his eyes as he also leans back against the pillows propping him up. “Bet that went over well.”

“Momota-san said everyone should try and meet up later to talk things over, but,” she shakes her head, “the others didn’t really seem to like that idea. Tenko was also really desperate, so she tried asking Harukawa-san if she knew anything about treating bullet wounds, but… she was not helpful.”

“So you had to do everything yourself,” Kaede says, bringing up her uninjured arm to press against her eyes. “God, Tenko-san, I’m so sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” she responds. “What happened is not your fault.”

“No,” Kaede lets out a forced, deprecating laugh, “but the fact that you’re the only person who cared enough to actually do anything to help me is.” She glances down to her arm, a wry, joyless smile on her face. “I don’t think anyone could have predicted I’d get shot, but… I really brought everything else on myself.”

“Don’t say that, Kaede-san,” Tenko says quickly.

“No,” Kaede says. “It’s true—though, honestly, after everything that happened I think the others are going to be more angry at how much of a hypocrite I am rather than the fact that I killed someone.” She shakes her head and feels her hands almost unconsciously ball up into fists. “I killed someone, and I got away with it—how can they do anything but hate me?”

Tenko doesn’t seem to know quite how to comfort her and simply places a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, softly saying, “Kaede-san…”

Hoshi’s back to staring at his lap as he mutters, “How the hell did everything turn out like this…”

Tenko shifts again, and Kaede feels her fingers curl slightly against the fabric of her sleeve. “Tenko—Tenko wants to say it’s all Monokuma’s fault, but… we say that over and over again like we know better, and we still keep ending up in the trial room.”

Kaede feels her throat tighten as she can do nothing but agree. “That’s right… maybe the mastermind is telling us all to murder, but… we’re the ones actually doing it.” She sighs again. “I can’t believe Ouma-kun was right when he said that only three of us haven’t tried to kill anyone.”

“That reminds me,” Hoshi says, eyes still trained on his lap. “The rules state that this game’s gonna keep going until there’s only two of us left, and I guess they get to go free… whatever that means given what it’s like outside.” He narrows his eyes but still doesn’t look at them. “But if only two people get to live through this… you should be one of them, Chabashira.”

Tenko opens her mouth, but Kaede says, “You should,” before the other girl can get a word in. “If anyone deserves it, it’s you.”

Tenko stares hard at both of them for a moment before she stands and walks away, physically turning her back to them as she busies herself at the table. Without looking up she says, “Tenko wants both of you to never speak that way again.”

“Tenko-san?” Kaede calls after her, trying to sit up on her one capable elbow.

She whips around to them, and though Kaede had seen Tenko angry many times over, this is the first time she could recall ever being on the receiving end of it. “ _Everyone_ deserves to live,” Tenko says sharply. “None of us should be in Monokuma’s game, and, and,” her hands turn into fists as her voice spikes in volume, “and saying we should all go along with it so a few of us who are ‘special’ or ‘better’ can escape is the worst thing Tenko has heard in her entire life.”

She brushes at her eyes angrily and says in a slightly softer voice, “Tenko wants to live, but if it means her friends all dying for her, then maybe she doesn’t.” 

Kaede looks at her for only a moment before she puts all her weight on to her good arm to try and get herself into a position where she can swing her legs over the bed. She immediately winces in pain at the jolt that shoots down her other arm at moving it, and nearly falls in a heap on the ground once she makes it into a wobbly standing position. Tenko rushes over to her, saying, “Kaede-san, you shouldn’t—”

Kaede still manages to keep moving and staggers to meet Tenko halfway, throwing her arms over her shoulders to bring the other girl into a hug. Tenko freezes then when she figures out what Kaede’s doing. “I’m sorry,” Kaede says. “I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have said that.”

Tenko’s posture softens and she returns the hug in such a way that allows Kaede to lean more of her weight on her. Tenko also still chastise her, saying, “You really shouldn’t try to stand up so fast like that, Kaede-san.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaede says again, though this time she laughs. “Except I’m really not.”

Tenko smiles softly as she moves to pull away slowly, retracting her support deliberately so Kaede can remain standing on her own. “You should be able to walk fine—getting back on your feet after fainting can be a bit disorienting. Just don’t jostle your arm too much,” then she says, “And also thank you. But please don’t talk about yourself that way, alright?”

“I won’t,” Kaede says. “I think that just… a lot happened yesterday.”

“That’s true,” Tenko says, sympathetically. “Tenko knows everyone is on edge, but,” she shakes her head. “Maybe it’s naïve, but Tenko really doesn’t want to think about more of us dying.”

“That’s good,” Hoshi says quietly from his spot on the bed. “I’m sorry I upset you earlier, but I still mean what I said—you’re probably one of the people whose been warped the least by the killing game.” He dares to glance up at her then. “It would just seem wrong if someone like you died.”

Tenko’s mouth draws into a thin line as she says, “And Tenko still thinks it’s wrong for anyone to die.”

“Not gonna argue with you,” he responds. “Just think based on our situation we need to think about all our options.”

“Ending the game with only two of us left,” Kaede says. “For that to happen… there would need to be two more murders, and then it would just be whoever gets to survive and the mastermind…”

Tenko shakes her head. “That is not an option.”

“I agree,” Hoshi says. “But it’s still the one we’ve taken this far.” He shrugs. “There’s a reason there’re only seven of us left. And maybe we’re the only seven left in the world, too…”

They all go quiet again for a moment before Kaede speaks up, “Hoshi-kun, I said at the trial that that had to be a lie, but… you saw the outside world. How bad is it?”

He lets out a breath. “I’ll keep it simple. When I used the keycard, I got a look at a bombed out city before I passed out because the air wasn’t breathable. Monokuma showed up and shut the door. He started going on about how bad it was, but it pretty much spoke for itself.”

“And,” Kaede says. “And it seemed real?”

Hoshi nods. “It did.”

“Well,” Kaede says clenching her fists. “Well, it still has to be a lie.”

He shrugs again. “If you want to believe that, sure.”

“No,” Kaede insists. “It has to be a lie. There’s no way we’re the only people left because… because…” she gestures vaguely trying to draw some possible reason out of her head. “Because if we were, then…” her eyes light up all of a sudden as one idea filters into her head. “Then how would you explain how the bodies disappear?”

“The what?” Tenko asks.

“The bodies,” Kaede repeats. “When someone dies, after we investigate, we all go to the trial room, including Monokuma and his kids or whatever. So while we’re all together, who’s cleaning up the crime scenes?”

Tenko blinks. “Tenko… never thought about that.”

“Never have either,” Hoshi says. “Figured it was always just Monokuma.”

“But can’t there only be one of him?” Kaede insists. “Like, he mentioned making tons of copies of him a while ago, but it seems like normally there can only be one of him at a time.”

Hoshi and Tenko exchange a look that Kaede knows mean they’re trying to figure out how to gently tell her she’s running on nothing. Tenko speaks first, saying, “Maybe it’s not Monokuma, but it could just be other robots.”

“But they’ve been so open about all the other robots,” Kaede says. “Why would they only hide the ones for corpse disposal?”

“Because they don’t affect us,” Hoshi says. “Monokuma gives information on a ‘you never asked’ basis. Though,” he frowns. “That does raise the question if there’s… something like a morgue somewhere in the school.”

Kaede suddenly feels her throat tighten as the implications of her own theory catch up with her. “Oh. I… don’t know.”

Tenko looks at the ground. “Tenko would prefer it if Monokuma didn’t unlock a morgue this time or ever…”

Hoshi sighs. “Have to agree. And you’re also right—he’s gonna show up soon to hand out our ‘prizes’ to explore the school to give us more stuff to kill each other.”

“He did hand out the motive when we were first exploring, too,” Kaede says. “Ugh,” she pinches the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe all this time has passed and we still have no way to defend against him.”

“Just trying to get by has been basically the only thing we could focus on,” Tenko says. “And with the way things are… working together seems almost impossible, even if it is to survive.”

Under his breath, Hoshi says, “if we still should survive that is…”

“We should,” Kaede says. “Because,” she summons any remnants of motivation she has left. “Even if it’s not a lie, and there really is nothing left for us outside of this school,” she looks to Tenko, smiling as triumphantly as she can. “I refuse to die like the mastermind wants me to.”

Hoshi looks up at her with a wry smile. “Your reason to live is just being stubborn?”

“Maybe it is,” Kaede answers, a soberness creeping into her words. “But too many people have died for me not to be stubborn about living.” Her other arm is aching too badly for her to pump her fists to rally her spirits like she had used to do so long, leaving her only the ability to try and offer them a seemingly confident smile. “So even if everyone hates me and dying is the right answers, I’m still going to find the mastermind and finally put a stop to this.”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “Tenko will help, but please don’t push yourself too hard, especially when you’re hurt.”

“I’ll try,” Kaede says, “to pick slightly less fights than normal.”

Hoshi lets out a low laugh and just shakes his head. “You’re a stronger person than I am, Akamatsu. Give you that at the very least.”

“That’s nice of you to say, Hoshi-kun,” Kaede says. “But you said it earlier—I’m not really strong or brave. Just stubborn.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Hoshi says. 

“Well,” Kaede says. “It certainly hasn’t made me very popular. Speaking of which,” she turns to Tenko. “I think I should go talk to the firing squad—not being there to speak for myself will probably just make things worse.”

Tenko frowns. “Hoshi-san shouldn’t walk right now, so Tenko needs to stay here if he needs anything…”

“I’ll be okay,” Kaede says smiling more sadly than she intended at the other girl. “I can’t always hide behind you. Which also reminds me,” she glances around the room. “Is my hat around here somewhere? I have a feeling I’m gonna need it.”

Tenko still seems unsure about Kaede’s decision but fetches Saihara’s hat from among her mountains of supplies and gives her one last hug at the door in what Kaede doesn’t miss as a silent plea for her not to run off on her own. But she leaves anyway. 

She closes Tenko’s door behind her and takes a moment to stand in the almost achingly silent dorms. The trial had been at night and Kaede assumes morning has come and gone from the afternoon light streaming in through the glass doors. She takes a quick moment to glance around at the portraits above each door, mentally ticking off how many rooms still have living occupants. 

More than half of them are dead, and as Kaede pushes open the doors to the dorms with her good hand, and thinks about Tenko’s words. _Everyone deserves to live._

-

Based on Hoshi’s testimony about the outside world, Kaede isn’t exactly sure what’s shining down on her as she makes the trip to the school, but it feels enough like the sun that she can almost feel happy for a moment before entering the school. Absently, she registers that the building finally looks completed, which can only mean that Monokuma is just waiting around the corner to shove more strange objects in her face to unlock whatever new horrors her remaining classmates will likely use to brutalize each other. Kaede shakes her head and tries to shake away her increasingly dark thoughts with the motion. 

She has no idea where the others are waiting, but with little more than a bite of the odd cookie Tenko had given her in her stomach, she opts to first go to the cafeteria. Just outside its doors, Kaede hears voices rising from within. She stays where she is for a moment to try and pick up pieces of their conversation. 

Shirogane’s speaking softly, and Kaede catches the tail end of the phrase “—still trust her?”

Ouma responds rather smugly to whatever her question was. “I mean, I haven’t trusted her from day one. She wears pink, after all, and everyone knows that’s the color of lies.”

“What kind of bullshit logic is that?” Momota asks. “And are you guys just gonna ignore that she tried to fucking tell us all of this crap before?”

Kaede feels herself smile slightly at Momota’s defense when Maki’s voice cuts in. “That’s not the problem. Akamatsu can tell as many lies as she wants, but when Monokuma lies for her…”

“And she was angry about that!” Momota says. “I fucking talked to her literally right after the trial, and she was arguing with Monokuma.”

“She was… talking to Monokuma alone?” Shirogane asks.

Kaede winces and takes a moment to swallow her dread before trying to push one of the doors open as nonchalantly as possible. The conversation inside comes to an abrupt halt as all four of the room’s occupants immediately spin to face her.

She forces herself to smile as she walks over to the table. “Good morning everyone, although I guess it’s really afternoon.”

“Yeah,” Momota says, voice betraying the sheer tension lingering in the room. “Uh, you doing okay, Kaede?” His eyes dart to thick bandages around her wound. “How’s your arm?”

“It’s okay,” she says taking a seat and pretending to ignore the swarm of heated eyes on her. “I mean, it still hurts if I try to do too much with it, and Tenko-san probably said a hundred times that I should be resting. But I can still walk around at least.”

“That’s good,” he says, still clearly searching for feasible conversation. “Chabashira and Hoshi doing okay?”

Kaede nods. “They’re fine. Tenko-san’s staying with Hoshi-kun right now since he shouldn’t put any pressure on his leg.” Part of her really knows she shouldn’t due to how poorly the others must think of her right now, but Kaede can’t help but let her bitterness shine through. “Tenko-san did a really good job helping us—it’s amazing that she was able to do all that by herself, don’t you think?”

Momota’s the one to respond to her again as the other three just stare. “Yeah, she’s really something.”

“She is,” Kaede says.

Ouma says, “You didn’t kill poor Chabashira-chan when you guys were alone, right?”

Kaede gives him a fake smile to rival his own. “You know, Ouma-kun, sometimes I think you’re pretty clever, but then you just say things that make you look like an idiot.”

Ouma giggles. “Looks like Akamatsu-chan’s feeling feisty today—maybe she’ll be slightly less boring than usual then!”

Momota scowls at both of them. “Leave her alone,” he says. “If we’re gonna talk shit out then we can’t just fucking argue with each other about nothing.”

“Boo,” Ouma says, crossing his arms. “Momota-chan’s taking Akamatsu-chan’s side just because he feels sorry for her…”

“What does that mean?” Kaede asks.

“It means no one trusts you,” Maki says. “And the only reason Momota’s bothering to act like anyone does is because he hasn’t—”

“Harumaki,” Momota snaps. There’s an anger rising over him before lets out a sigh, only saying, “I can speak for myself.”

Maki narrows her eyes at him. “Then why don’t you tell her what’s going on.”

“He doesn’t need to,” Kaede cuts in. “Tenko-san already told me you all went to the library this morning.” She looks up to meet all of their stares. “And I take it you found what you were looking for.”

Shirogane’s fidgeting nervously in her seat but speaks up for the first time as she asks, “So, um, did you really kill Amami-kun then?”

“Of course she did!” Ouma says. “Akamatsu-chan is a cold blooded killer after all!”

Maki rolls her eyes. “There’s no point in asking that—the evidence speaks for itself.”

“Ah,” Shirogane says, shrinking in on herself. “Sorry, you’re right…”

Kaede lets out an aggravated sigh. “Alright, look—what I did was horrible and I’m never going to make excuses for my behavior, but did all of you forget that I’m not the only person at this table who’s ever killed someone?”

“That’s right,” Momota says looking down at the table. “Tryin’ to act like we’re better than her is fucking stupid. And like I keep saying, Kaede’s not—”

“The fact that she killed doesn’t matter,” Maki says. “The problem is that she won her trial. Care to explain that?”

Kaede returns her stare. “All I know is what Monokuma told me—he said he would have accepted either me or Saihara-kun as the culprit.”

“Is that so?” Ouma asks, leaning forward conspiratorially. “So does that mean the two of you were in on it together?” He rubs at his suddenly teary eyes. “My poor beloved Amami-chan didn’t have a chance…”

“I never wanted to kill Amami-kun!” Kaede says, voice rising in volume. 

“Then…” Shirogane says softly. “What… were you trying to do in the library?”

“That’s a good question,” Maki says, folding her arms. “People died over it, after all.”

“Harumaki,” Momota says sharply. “We can’t fucking talk to each other like this—this isn’t a goddamn interrogation.”

Maki glances to him. “Well maybe it should be. Akamastu clearly has a lot she’s been hiding.”

“No,” Kaede says. “I haven’t.”

“Then tell us why you killed Amami,” Maki says. “And why you stuck around to watch us suffer after you—”

“ _Harukawa_ ,” Momota says, this time rising to his feet and firmly planting his hands on the table. “Fucking knock it off and leave her alone.”

Maki stares up at him, expression a mixture of anger and sheer disbelief. 

Ouma giggles. “Oooh, Harumaki-chan got in trouble!”

“You knock if off, too,” Momota says. “Both of you have given Kaede nothing but shit since we got here, and I’m sick of it.”

“Well,” Ouma says, resting his chin on his folded hands. “I suppose it would make sense you’d sympathize with someone like her, given recent events.”

Momota stares searchingly at him for a moment before simply letting out a sigh and hanging his head without a word. 

He remains quiet too long, and Kaede quickly realizes that she just lost her only ally in this conversation. Before either Maki or Ouma or even the increasingly anxious Shirogane can get a word in, Kaede says, “I know none of you trust me, and I don’t expect you to, but for the time being, we all need to work together. We just don’t have any other choices, and being at each others’ throats isn’t going to do anything but cause another murder.”

They watch her for a moment before Maki says, “So your rebuttal is that we just have to suck it up and deal with it because you’re completely unrepentant?”

“That’s not what I—” Kaede begins to say, however, her words fall under the volume of a very familiar, very loud giggle.

“Puhuhuhuhu,” Monokuma lets out to announce his presence. “Glad to see all you kids getting along—you know, sometimes you remind me of my own poor children. Oh, they were all taken from the world too young…”

“Didn’t you kill them?” Shirogane asks innocently.

He waves a paw. “Details, details—didn’t anyone ever tell you not to pry into other people’s family matters? I, for one, am a very private bear.”

“Then you’ll hurry up and tell us why you’re here and spare us from your nauseating presence,” Maki says.

“My, my!” Monokuma says. “How rude! I don’t even know if I want to give you your last two totally super mega awesome gifts!”

“Last two?” Kaede says. “Does that mean the school’s been finished?”

Ouma meanwhile practically bounces in his chair. “Ooh! Ooh! I want a present!”

“Monokuma giveth and Monokuma taketh away,” Monokuma announces dramatically before producing two keys. “Though right now Monokuma giveth.”

Ouma’s immediately out of his seat to grab one of the keys when Momota physically blocks him. “Nope,” he says, staring down at the smaller boy trying to get around him. “No running off on your own after last time.”

Ouma pouts, puffing out his cheeks. “Geeze, Momota-chan—I don’t always need a babysitter.”

“I don’t care,” he answers. “I’m staying with you.” At his words, Ouma suddenly stops fighting, allowing Momota to easily take two keys—one futuristic, one old—from Monokuma. “Looks like there’re not a lot of places left.”

Monokuma brings his paws to his mouth. “Hey, hey—this is just a teeny tiny hint, but one of those keys may or may not have a second use in it.”

“That seems like a pretty big hint,” Shirogane says, standing up from the table. “Um,” she moves to peer around Momota’s shoulder at the keys. “With so few of us left, I don’t know if it would make sense for us to split up or not…”

Kaede sighs as she stands. “Tenko-san and Hoshi-kun probably won’t be able to come explore, so it’ll just be the five of us.”

“Then we might as well all stay together,” Momota says quickly before anyone else can protest. He shoots a pointed look to both Ouma and Maki, “And I’ll hold on to the keys.”

“Okie-dokie!” Ouma says. “But you and Akamatsu-chan better not slow us down!”

Momota rolls his eyes as Maki says, “So we’re all really just going to hold hands and pretend to be friends?”

“We’re going to explore the school,” Kaede says. “I already said you don’t have to trust me, but saying I’m not even allowed to walk around the place where we’re already imprisoned is absurd.”

Maki opens her mouth, but Momota cuts in, saying, “You know what? I think we’re all done fucking talking about this.”

“I agree,” Ouma says. “This conversation was getting to be really boring anyway.”

“I’m not sure if that’s the problem…” Shirogane says as Momota finally leads the way out of the cafeteria, muttering about how he knows there’s a place outside that matches the strange shining key in his hands. 

The five of them walk silently in a loose parade across the school. Momota leads them, having mastered hiding his persistent limp almost completely while Ouma skips at his side and Maki shadows him with her arms tightly crossed. Shirogane, who had been so happy to chat with Kaede the last time they explored, also noticeably stays a few steps away from her almost as if she feared that Kaede would attack her at any moment. With the exception of Momota, who doesn’t look back once, all of them shoot her cautious glances from time to time as if she were a wild animal. 

The more rational part of her knows that yelling at them to stop would likely only make the situation worse, and Kaede keeps her hat low and her mouth shut until they reach a great, futuristic looking door near Iruma’s lab. 

Momota just gazes up at it for a few moments before pressing the glowing key in his hand into a similarly glowing pillar with little fanfare. The door before them shifts slightly at the action, and Kaede can only guess that it’s unlocking itself. 

They wait for it to settle in its movements when Momota finally voices her thoughts aloud, “Guess it’s unlocked now? Whatever this place is?”

“I’ll go first,” Maki says stepping in front of him. “It might be dangerous.”

“Ooh, good point,” Ouma says. “Harumaki-chan is a great meat shield, too!”

“Never mind,” Maki says. “Ouma’s in front.”

He giggles as he skips to the front doors. “I was hoping you’d say that—I wanted to go first anyway!”

The doors spiral open, and Ouma immediately takes off running inside the winding hallways stretching before them, his arms held out to his sides like airplane wings. “This place is huge!” he shouts back, voice echoing slightly.

Momota calls out for him not to go off on his own and starts charging after him, Maki following close behind while Kaede simply takes in the strange building. Wires run over the walls in huge bundles and the floor beneath them appears to be made up of heavy metal paneling. Beside her, Shirogane just seems to be looking upward at the high ceilings. 

Kaede starts walking to catch up with the others, saying to Shirogane as she does so, “I wonder what this place was built for—it doesn’t seem like anything that would be at a school, even a weird one.”

“A-Ah,” Shirogane stammers, obviously caught off guard at being addressed. “Yes, I suppose that’s a good point, though… sometimes schools have all manner of odd things like a giant cage in a music room for example.”

Kaede has little to connect that example to but smiles along anyway as the other girl opted to respond to her at all. The long hall twists before reaching a wider opening that appears to be empty. Kaede looks around briefly, but her musings are abruptly caught off guard by the sounds of a very loud alarm going off somewhere in the distance. 

Shirogane physically startles at the noise, asking, “W-What was that?”

“It came from here,” Kaede says, already following the source of the noise at a slightly brisker pace.

At the end of the hall, the two girls discover the rather odd sight of Momota standing between Ouma and Maki, glaring at each other from around him and Monokuma in front of the trio, rattling off an exceptionally long list of numbers as his rounded paws fiddle with a control panel on a terminal. 

It’s enough to make Kaede stop in her tracks as she asks, voice barely rising over the alarm, “What’s going on?”

Monokuma’s the one to answer, saying “ _Someone_ tripped the alarm! And,” he presses another button on the panel and the previously piercing noise suddenly fades away, “I’ll have you kids know how much of a pain in my furry neck it is to turn it off.”

“Alarm?” Shirogane asks.

Momota gestures to a large closed shutter. “There was a fucking blue force field thing or something over this door a second ago—Ouma got too close and must have tripped whatever alarm Monokuma’s talking about.”

“Which is what happens when brats go places they shouldn’t,” Maki adds.

Ouma sniffles. “I was just trying to explore… how was I supposed to know the door would get mad at me…”

“So,” Kaede says, trying to take in the situation. “Can we go inside or not then?”

“This time,” Monokuma announces. “I’ll let you kids take a looksie, but if you want to get in after this, you had better remember the code, got it?”

“Uh,” Shirogane says. “What code?”

“A really long and boring code,” Ouma says. “One that nobody cares about or would bother with remembering…”

Kaede frowns. “But that code deactivates the barrier or whatever?”

“Motion sensor alarm barrier system!” Monokuma corrects. “If you get too close the alarm goes off, and I have to haul myself out of my nice comfy bed to come down here to turn it off, if you don’t just use the code to turn it off yourself.”

“But none of us know the code,” Kaede says. “So if someone activates the alarm… we can’t do anything about it.” 

Monokuma pauses for a moment before waddling up to her with a small remote in his hands. “You know what? Why don’t you kids just keep the remote to this place—turns off the security sensor and all that, but you’ll still need to know the code to get rid of the barrier if you turn it back on.”

“But couldn’t we plainly just leave it off?” Shirogane asks.

Monokuma shrugs. “Well, if you want to risk all my precious secrets getting stolen…”

“But you’re not going to reactivate it yourself, and you’re just giving us something that can turn off this place’s alarm?” Maki says as Kaede hesitantly takes it from him. “Why?”

“Can’t a bear just do something out of the kindness of his heart?” Monokuma asks. 

He’s meant with a silence loud enough to send him scurrying away with little more than a huff of, “kids today with their murders and lack of gratitude…”

With Monokuma gone, Momota approaches the shutter and smoothly lifts it up. “Doesn’t seem like a trap,” he says hesitantly before stepping inside. “Except—whoa.”

The others quickly move to follow after him, Kaede asking, “What is it?” before she spies two pristine and three dented Exisals all lined up in a neat row. “Ah… is this where the Exisals are stored then?”

The slowly pour into the room, spreading out to look around. With her hands held close to her chest, Shirogane asks, “Is it safe to be in here? I mean, the Monokubs aren’t around to pilot these anymore, but…”

“They look safe to me,” Ouma says. Then he gasps and begins to fish something out of his pocket, “Which reminds me—!”

Kaede looks over to him as pulls a familiar looking remote from his pocket and points it in the direction of the blue Exisal. She opens her mouth to question him when the machine suddenly springs to life, and Shirogane jumps backwards with a scream.

“Ah, ha!” Ouma says as he presses a few more buttons the remote and the Exisal begins to twirl almost daintily in place. “So Iruma-chan wasn’t lying!”

Maki storms over to him. “And that also reminds me—the remote,” she holds out her hand to him. “Now.”

“Hmm,” Ouma hums before sticking his tongue out at her. “Don’t wanna.”

“Do you want to die?” Maki asks.

“Momota-chan!” Ouma calls out. “Harukawa-chan’s bullying me!”

Momota lets out an aggravated sigh, “Are we really going to have this fucking conversation again?”

He steps over to them and swiftly yanks the remote out of Ouma’s hands in one sharp movement. Ouma squawks in protest and immediately starts jumping for it as Momota holds it over his head. “No fair!” he shouts. 

With the remote out of his grip, the Exisal stops moving, and with its erratic movements no longer holding Kaede’s attention, she lets herself glance around the room a bit more, the arguing of the others drifting in and out of her attention. Other than the Exisals, there appears to be a large washing machine as well as a painting machine and a hydraulic press she guesses is used to crush defunct machinery.

Beside her, Shirogane mumbles, “Ugh, I know these things have safety features on them to stop you from hurting yourself, but just seeing it makes me think what would happen if you got your arm caught in one or something.”

Kaede can’t help but twist her face in disgust at the idea. “I don’t think I want to think about that.”

“I know right?” Shirogane says. “But I almost can’t help but imagine if someone was holding something and their finger was under it while someone else turned it on, and then it would be just boom—smashed it to pieces! Uh, then again… talking about this just makes me think about it more…”

“Y-Yeah,” Kaede agrees. 

Behind her the argument seems to have increased in intensity with Momota finally shouting above both Ouma’s childish whining and Maki’s threats. “I’ll fucking hold on to it then!”

Maki says, “You’re treating us like we’re children,” at roughly the same time Ouma whines, “But it’s miiine!”

“Then quit fucking acting like children,” Momota mutters darkly under his breath as he runs a hand through his hair. “For fuck’s sake…”

Maki narrows her eyes. “As if you’re one to talk.”

“Well right now I am, and I’m still not about to give anyone the remote,” he announces before turning to look to Kaede and Shirogane. “Anyway, I think we’re about done here.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “I guess we can always come back when we figure out what to do with the Exisals.”

“So we should just leave the barrier turned off then?” Shirogane asks. 

Momota walks over to them, Maki and Ouma both shooting glares at his back. “Probably. Turning it on wouldn’t do shit besides locking us out.”

“Right, right,” says Ouma, seemingly done with his pouting. “So where to next, fearless leader?”

“Are you talking to me or Kaito?” Kaede asks.

Ouma grins up at her. “Momota-chan, of course! The only place Akamatsu-chan has led us to is the trial room.” 

“That’s enough,” Momota scolds, sounding more tired than anything. “C’mon, it’s a long way back to the school, and that’s probably where the other key goes…”

Maki approaches him, brow knit with concern. “You can always go back to the dorm with Chabashira and Hoshi if you need to—having one less person isn’t going to change what we find.” She crosses her arms and sends him a meaningful look. “If you need to rest, you need to rest—there’s really no need to act childishly about this.”

“Yeah!” Ouma says. “It’d be really boring if we had to stop exploring to take nap breaks for Momota-chan, too.”

Momota sighs again though a bit of his normal cheer seems to return. “I’ll be fine—you guys don’t need to worry about me.”

He starts to walk away again, but Kaede frowns as she stares after him and frowns even more when she notices him holding his side when they return to the school’s entrance hall.

The others seem to notice it, too, but instead of voicing their worry aloud, Shirogane simply says, “Um, I think there’s another locked door near here, and then there’s also the one on the fifth floor…”

“Closest one makes the most sense,” Momota says with little fanfare as he makes the turn around the hallway. They silently follow to find a doorway in front of Momota already fading away—though the key remains in his hand—and a room opening up behind it. He wanders inside, and Kaede quickly follows to stare up at the large, spiraling staircase. 

Any marveling is cut short by Maki saying, “You are not walking up all those stairs.”

“What?” Momota says, gaze still skyward. “Who’s not going?”

“You,” she says plainly. “You’ve already walked across the entire school twice—if you try and climb these stairs, you’ll collapse.”

He rolls his eyes as he moves to rebelliously ascend the first few steps, “C’mon, Harumaki. I’m not that fragile.”

“Yeah,” Ouma says taking the stares two at a time behind him. “Momota-chan’s super strong and tough and never falls or trips or anything.”

Maki huffs and hurries to shadow them, seemingly ready to catch Momota should he fall. “If you trip him, I will kill you.”

“But why would I trip Momota-chan when you’re right there?” Ouma asks.

Maki’s expression darkens, and Kaede barely makes out Momota’s exhausted sigh as the climb the spiraling staircase higher and higher. Beside her, Shirogane says, “Well, at least they’re having fun…”

Kaede gives her a sideways glance and wonders to herself if that is true as she slowly climbs the stairs herself. 

At the top, it opens up to a hallway with a door printed with a rocket on it. Shirogane follows behind her as Kaede presses it open, the sounds of shouting already echoing from inside.

The room is rather large with a walkway leading to what Kaede assumes is supposed to be a model of a rocket’s cockpit. She spies Ouma gleefully running around a large sphere lighting up the sky with stars as Maki threatens him from a distance, but she opts to ignore them and instead seat herself in one of the two chairs in the middle of the room. 

Momota’s practically collapsed in the other chair, idly watching the two of them and seeming far less excited about this place than Kaede thought he would be. Perhaps it was the walk up or playing peacekeeper all day has gotten to him, but the exhausted figure before her is a far cry from the boy she had run around with talking about how excited he was for his lab so long ago. 

Shirogane wanders off of the path to explore the simulated planet beneath them, and Kaede quietly says, “You feeling alright?”

“I’m fucking great,” he says, tearing his eyes away from Maki and Ouma to gesture vaguely towards her arm. “How about you?”

“I’m fine,” she says gingerly resting her arm on the arm rest. “Also, thanks for sticking up for me back at the cafeteria.”

“‘Course,” Momota says. “Honestly, I was really just saying what I was thinking.”

“Still,” Kaede insists. “It kind of means a lot to me. I… don’t exactly have a lot of friends right now, not that I don’t deserve it.”

Momota frowns. “Kaede, I get that you don’t like yourself or whatever, but I saw you right after the trial so you can’t lie to me about what happened.”

“I don’t know,” Kaede says. “I think I’m getting to be a pretty good liar.”

Momota smiles softly as he shakes his head. “Because we need another one of those.”

Kaede returns her smile before lowering her voice as she asks, “by the way, what did happen between you and…”

Momota leans back in his chair and sighs. “Yeah… figured you’d probably wanna know at some point.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Kaede says. “But I think it might maybe help put a few things in perspective.”

“Well,” he rubs the back of his head. “Can’t exactly argue with you there. Although,” his eyes drift to the others, Ouma and Maki now crowding around Shirogane as she approaches with a few pieces of paper in her hands. “Think we might have to talk about this later.”

Kaede nods and spins around in her chair to face the other three as they approach. Momota does the same, asking, “Find something?”

“Um,” Shirogane begins. “I was just looking around and found these papers, and they just plain looked out of place.”

“They also say ‘Gofer Project,’” Maki says. “And they talk about saving humanity by using sixteen gifted students.”

“And that’s probably us,” Kaede says. “So… we’re supposed to save humanity?”

Ouma hums. “Well, personally, I think we’ve done an excellent job so far.”

Shirogane grimaces slightly as she says, “The rest of it was blacked out, so we couldn’t really read much. But… if we really were meant to save humanity, how did we end up in a killing game?”

“Well,” Ouma says. “Whoever made this plan made some bad choices. I mean, inviting an assassin and a robot and a convicted criminal is just asking for trouble.”

“And a supreme leader isn’t?” Maki asks. “Of course, your talent still doesn’t make any sense so you might just be lying about that as well.”

Ouma gasps. “I would never! Hey, Momota-chan, do I look like the kind of horrible, nasty, smelly person who would lie about their own talent?”

Momota begins to say, “Ouma—”

“Even if Momota doesn’t want me to kill you,” Maki snaps. “I can still make living very painful for you.”

“Haru—”

“Waaah! Harumaki-chan’s threatening me!”

“Do you want to die?”

Kaede tries to help Momota saying, “Guys, stop—”

Maki suddenly jerks her head to her as if recognizing Kaede’s presence for the first time. “Have you two been talking this whole time? What did you say to him?”

“Don’t listen to her, Momota-chan,” Ouma says. “Akamatsu-chan only tells lies!”

Kaede frowns. “I can talk to Kaito if I wan—”

Ouma says, “But if Momota-chan’s alone with you, then you might try and claim your second victim.”

“I don’t think anyone should be alone with you,” Maki says. “And also, this place is pretty useless now that we’ve found everything. There’s no point staying here.”

“Yeah, let’s get a move on already,” Ouma says. “I already saw everything and this place is even more boring than the rest of the school.”

“Honestly,” Maki continues. “The fact that we had to climb all those stairs just to get here is ridiculous.”

“Hey, hey, Momota-chan,” Ouma says. “Can you give me a piggyback ride down the stairs since it is your fault we had to come all the way up here for nothing?”

“Can both of you shut up!?” Momota says rising to his feet to tower over them. 

They both stare up at him, and Shirogane, who had previously been shrinking into the background, retreats even further towards the exit of the room. Maki manages to say, “I was simply—”

“I don’t care,” he says sharply. 

Ouma frowns, seemingly serious for once as he starts to say, “So you’re not going to give me a pig—”

“Shut up,” Momota snaps again as he jerks his finger towards the exit of his lab. “This is my fucking lab, and I’m kicking both of you out.”

Maki raises an eyebrow. “This lab is part of the school. You don’t own it, and you can’t kick anyone out.”

“Well right now I’m making the fucking impossible possible then,” he says. “Because right now I’m telling you both to fucking leave.”

A deeply uneasy silence falls over them, and Kaede tries to stay as still in her chair as possible, lest make any noise to draw attention to herself. 

Maki’s the first to break, finally turning away from them, her pigtails jerking at the sharp movement. “Fine. You can make whatever stupid decisions you want on your own.”

Though her voice was even, her heavy stomping outside of the room and slamming of the door betrays her anger. At the sound of it, Momota runs a hand through his hair, though ends up cutting the action short as Ouma briefly darts forward to warp his arms around his waist. “Wh—hey!”

Ouma pulls away from the hug almost as quickly as he had initiated it, only softly saying, “sorry for making you mad, Momota-chan… I’ll leave.” 

Without a word of explanation, he exits the room with exaggeratedly dragging steps. Kaede stares after him as she hears Momota finally collapse back in his chair, mumbling curses to himself.

Kaede waits a moment before asking, “Still doing okay? I could leave, too, if you just want some peace and quiet.”

“No,” he says. “It’s alright—I think I was maybe too tough on them or something. Just,” he rests his head in his hands. “Fuck. I think… I think I’ve found my goddamn breaking point.”

“Kaito,” she says softly, more out of a loss of anything else to say.

He looks up, still running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t even fucking know I had one, but here I am.”

Kaede nods sympathetically. “It’s not your fault—I think the killing game brings out the worst in everyone, and you’ve been basically trying to take care of everyone besides yourself.”

“And I just did a fucking great job of that,” Momota sighs. “To be completely fucking honest—they’re both just really exhausting.”

Kaede looks at him. “Both of them?”

He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment before saying, “Yeah. Like hell I’ll ever say anything like this to anyone else, but…” he stares up at the stars flickering in and out, “with all the shit that’s going on, I think I’ve had it with… fuck everything. Don’t get me wrong, I like helping people and crap and I want to be there for them, but they’re both driving me fucking crazy.”

“I mean,” Kaede says, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I’m not about to disagree with you.”

Momota snorts. “Guess I should’ve expected that answers. But… they are good people and just need someone to help them, though I’m also starting to think they need a lot more help than I can fucking give them. I just,” he sighs again, shaking his head. “Fuck I hate saying this, but lately I just don’t have the energy to be the person they want all the time.”

“I think that’s normal,” Kaede says. “And you deserve to have time to yourself, and they just have to deal with that. And,” she shifts slightly. “If you mind me speaking frankly, they seem pretty selfish—all take and no give.”

Momota pauses for a moment, seeming to have finally cooled down. Then, “I’d give them a little more credit than that but yeah. Pretty fucking hard to imagine talking to Ouma about feeling weak or Harumaki about how much going to space actually means to me.”

Kaede nods. “They were both… pretty horrible for talking about how useless they think this place is—maybe it’s silly but I remember how excited I was when I first found my lab. I don’t know how I would’ve reacted if anyone had told me how much they hated it. Do you think,” she rests her head on her knees. “Do you think they care about… the real you? Or just the things you say to them? Like, you make them feel good about themselves and that’s enough for them.”

He lets out a long breath. “That’s a good question,” he says finally. “I think… Well,” he snorts. “I think they care in their own weird ways, but, like I said, it’s pretty fucking hard to imagine ever talking like this with one of them. Of course, you’re pretty different from the others, Kaede.”

That catches her off guard, and she pulls her gaze from the stars to look at him. “What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t worry—it’s a good thing,” Momota says. “Like, after all the crap that went down with Saihara, even though you were obviously upset, you were still strong—that’s why I said we should be partners. It’ll take a hell of a lot more than one person disappointing you for you to break down.”

“And the others… aren’t like that?” Kaede presses.

He shrugs. “They need more support. I mean,” he looks down to grin at her. “You’ll be fucking fine when whatever’s wrong with me finally kills me—I mean, I hope you’ll be sad and shit, but it won’t knock you down. And,” he shakes his head. “I’m not sure I can say the same for the others. Actually, fuck, I know I can’t since I can’t even fucking talk to them about it.”

Kaede takes a moment to process his words. Finally, she settles on, “I’m sorry this is happening to you, Kaito. I’ve,” she tugs her hat a bit further over her eyes. “I’ve always thought you were a better person than me for trying to help Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun when I can barely talk to them. I’m not sure if that helps anything but…”

Momota laughs. “Thanks for the compliment, but I think you’d have done the same if you had been in a different headspace. You tried to help Saihara, after all.”

“I guess I did,” she answers. “And I also guess… I’m not the person I was when I tried to help him anymore.”

“Don’t think I’m the same as when I first woke up in this hell hole either,” Momota says. “And I’m really not fucking sure if that’s a good thing or not.”

Kaede lets out a short laugh. “You know, me, too.” She her head to give him sidelong glance. “Guess we really do have a lot in common.”

“No kidding,” he answers. 

They stay quiet for a moment longer, just watching the projector flicker between various views of the night sky, each unique in their own beauty.

Finally, Momota eventually says, “Hey, Kaede—don’t tell me not to say stuff like this or that I’m gonna be fine and make it out and shit, okay?”

She isn’t sure how to respond to that and simply shifts her gaze to him. “Kaito?”

“I’m not living through this,” he says plainly as if it’s just a natural and mundane fact about their world. “And even though I know you hate them and they hate you, when I am gone, just… don’t let Harumaki and Ouma kill each other, alright?”

“Ah,” Kaede says, momentarily at a loss for words. “Of—Of course.”

Momota’s eyes are still locked on the stars and there’s a soft smile on his face as he says, “I know I just talked a bunch of shit about them and yelled at them to leave me alone, but they are good people and they should live through this.”

She finds that even harder to answer and, after a moment, calmly replies with words Tenko had told her earlier that day. “Everyone should live through this.”

Momota frowns, saying “You know what I—”

“But I’ll try,” Kaede says. “I doubt I can just say ‘because Kaito said so’ to get them to listen to me, but I’ll try.” 

“Thanks,” he says, smile returning to his face as he gently elbows her arm. “Knew I picked a good partner.”

She laughs. 

Kaede spends what is probably too much time there simply talking, listening to Momota ramble about just how amazing space is and what he would do if he could actually accomplish his goal that he seems so faraway from inside their prison. There’s enough passion behind his voice as he talks about his friends and his dreams that it would be contagious if it weren’t for the almost crushing reality looming over both of them that one day he’s going to cough and cough and that will be the end of everything.

She spends enough time just sitting and taking in this quiet moment of peace that she briefly entertains the idea that maybe they could just spend the rest of the game there.

But then Momota casually reaches into his jacket pocket to search for something he got himself from the Monomonomachine when Kaede mentions Tenko’s stash of supplies. His hand comes out empty, and he presses both hands to his forehead as he says, “Ouma stole the key and the fucking remote.”

Kaede can’t help but groan as she squeezes the bridge of her nose. They both rise from their chairs to speed walk out of the room and down the stairs. 

Ouma must have decided to take his time with whatever he had planned as they only hear a near deafening explosion as they reach the last steps down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for their patience on this chapter! My updating pace is still going to be a bit slower this month, but I cannot express how much I appreciate all of the comments that people have written and art they've been kind enough to draw. I'll try to get to replying to the rest of the comments from last chapter tomorrow! 
> 
> And I also want to announce that there's going to be a bonus chapter between chapters 5 and 6 featuring bonus scenes that Kaede would have theoretically gotten with different items. And I also think that would be a great place to finally comply a list of links to all the wonderful fan art people have drawn for this story in one place--I'll be asking artists if they're alright with me linking their works individually but know that if you have drawn something, I would love to be able to link it here to share with everyone!


	28. Daily Life XI

Kaede’s arm hurts with each light jostle as she tries her best to move at a reasonable jog. Momota moves at roughly the same pace beside her, hindered by his own older wounds, and neither say a word as a series of only slightly less deafening explosions reverberate through the school. 

They don’t need Kaede’s hearing to track the source and wordlessly ascend through the maze of a school to reach higher and higher floors in the main building. They stumble into Shirogane on the second floor, seemingly as frazzled as them. Between the sounds of something banging relentlessly above them, she manages to ask, “What is going on?” as she falls into step with them.

“Ouma stole the fucking remote for the Exisals,” Momota says, not looking back at her in his hurry even as he grabs at his side with a brief wince.

“And he’s destroying the school with them?” Shirogane asks, panic in her voice rising.

“He’s destroying something,” Kaede answers vaguely. She calls louder, over the noises still echoing above them as they take the next flight of stairs two at a time. “Have you seen the others?”

Shirogane shakes her head. “Not since I left Momota-kun’s research lab,” she says. “They might be at the dorms, I think? I guess if they’re there, they’re safe at least.”

Kaede clenches her jaw as the thought of having to be concerned about her safety suddenly enters her head as a very real possibility. She doesn’t slow her pace, but it’s then that she vaguely realizes she has literally no plan for how to possibly confront whatever they’re about to find. The fact that whatever that it is involves giant killer robots does nothing to ease the sudden dread creeping up through her. 

All three of them are out of breath when they finally reach the fifth floor just as the last resounding clang of metal against metal echoes through the room. Kaede doesn’t have to spend much time taking in her surroundings to spy the twin Exisals standing a ways from the stairs. Despite looking a few shades paler and breathing the hardest out of all of them, Momota immediately storms past her, shouting, “Ouma!” 

Kaede follows him and makes out Ouma’s much smaller form standing back a few paces from the Exisals and the rubble in front of them. Momota clears his throat with a brief cough and yells again, “the fuck are you doing!?”

His words catch Ouma’s attention enough for him to briefly glance towards them as they rush over before turning back to his remote. “Breaking the school,” he replies nonchalantly. “What are you doing?”

“Y-You’re what!?” Shirogane stammers. “Why are you—”

“Because I can,” Ouma answers plainly. “And after I used the key, there was a pesky locked door in my way, which is so mean.”

“But you can pick locks,” Kaede says. 

“Aw, you remembered, Akamatsu-chan!” Ouma says, bringing his free hand to his heart. 

Kaede pauses in catching her breath to frown at him. “Wait—did you use the Exisals to break down a door you can already open?”

Momota huffs as he moves past her to try and swipe the remote back from Ouma, even as the other boy already begins to move to dart out of his grip. “You got it!” Ouma simply cheers. 

“So you just destroyed part of the school for fun?” Shirogane asks, looking around nervously. “I-I know we were able to open other locked parts of the school before, but isn’t that against the rules?”

Still scampering out of Momota’s reach, Ouma says, “I don’t know—I can’t remember the rules saying anything against piloting a robot army to help explore the school, Shirogane-chan.”

“I, well,” she responds. “I guess I thought that was rather plainly implied.”

Momota ignores their conversation to call out, “Give me the fucking remote, Ouma!” 

Kaede spares a glance away from them to stare down the new, rubble lined hallway. The room at the end of it has its doors completely collapsed in pieces on the ground, and Kaede can see what appears to be a very red looking room on the other side. She’s still leaning to peer at it, making out odd shapes hanging from the ceiling when Shirogane asks, “Um, Ouma-kun? Why are the Exisals purple now?”

Kaede tears her gaze away to follow Shirogane’s hand pointing to the now purple covers on the Exisals towering menacingly over them. Still casually dodging out of the way of Momota, Ouma says, “Oh that—see Iruma-chan broke the other three, so I decided to give the two working ones a makeover.”

“That’s what you were doing?” Momota snorts. “Making them match your eyes or something?”

“I didn’t want them to match me,” Ouma says. “I made them match Momota-chan as an apology for taking the remote. Sooo what do you think? Do you love it?”

The two pause for a moment to allow Momota to do a quick double take at the light purple covers of the Exisals. He abruptly turns back on his heel then to make another lunge for the remote, renewed vigor in his movements and his face slightly redder. “Alright—fuck giving me the remote, I’m just gonna fucking break it.”

“Noooo!” Ouma whines in distress, though he still looks like he’s having more fun than anything else to Kaede.

Very quietly Shirogane says, “I know people sometimes name cars or boats after people they like, but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of someone doing that with a mecha…”

Kaede gives her a wry smile. “I don’t think most people have access to mechas.”

Shirogane seems to flinch at Kaede’s sudden attention on her, and she retreats as she softly says, “Ah, um, yeah, you’re probably right.”

The obvious fear in her voice concerns Kaede, but any questions she has for the other girl vanish as Ouma suddenly cheers, “Ooh, ooh! Also, I just realized we can go swimming at night now!”

Kaede turns back to him to ask, “What does that have to do with anything?”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks. “Geeze, Akamatsu-chan, how slow can you be?”

Beside her, Shirogane mumbles, “I don’t understand? Swimming at night is against the rules, right? So why would—”

Her words click everything together immediately for Kaede, and she says aloud, “There are no rules now.” 

Momota comes to a sudden stop in his squabble with Ouma, and Shirogane’s usual fidgeting seems to simply fall out of her gestures altogether as he says, “Wait what?”

“There’s… no rules?” Shirogane parrots. “Why wouldn’t there be—”

“Think back on it,” Kaede says, the pieces falling fast before her. “Every time we would be introduced to a rule, Monokuma or one of his kubs or whatever, would always say that if we broke it, then the Exisals would attack, but if Monokuma doesn’t have the Exisals anymore…”

“He can’t enforce any of his shitty rules,” Momota finishes. “But wait,” he straightens, furrowing his brow in thought, “if Monokuma can’t do shit to us now, does that mean the killing game’s over?”

Ouma hums, the noise quickly drawing all of their attention. “Well, that’s still up to us, just like it’s always been. Because really,” he smiles, tilting his head, “we all could just actually decide to mean what we say and agree to stop killing each other any time we want.”

Kaede curls her hands into fists, but finds herself almost helpless to argue against his logic. Instead she says, “The point is that we actually have a shot at escaping this place now—if we don’t have to worry about the Exisals, we can actually explore the school. And there’s a chance we could make a run for it if we find a way out.”

“But,” Shirogane says, hugging herself. “We already know a way out, and Monokuma didn’t need to do anything to try and stop Harukawa-san or Hoshi-kun from using it…”

Kaede frowns. “I thought we all agreed that was just Monokuma’s trick. We know he’s lied about motives before, so—”

“Actually, Kaede,” Momota cuts in, exchanging a look with Shirogane that does nothing to raise Kaede’s confidence. “I know all the stuff you said at the trial about how we shouldn’t just decide to give up and fucking die or whatever without seeing for ourselves, and I agree with all that but… you might wanna listen to what Hoshi or Harumaki have to say about it.”

“It’s hell!” Ouma happily clarifies.

“Harukawa-san told us…” Shirogane says, looking somewhere distant as he face turns a shade paler. “She told us that it was all ruins… there wasn’t even breathable air.”

Kaede shakes her head. “Hoshi-kun already told me that, but I’m saying it can’t be the truth—there’s no way we’re the only people left. I just,” she straightens her shoulders. “I just refuse to believe that.”

“I mean,” Momota says. “I don’t think we should all just fucking lie down and die like Hoshi wanted, and,” he gives her a slightly more confident nod, though Kaede’s stomach still turns at the implications behind their conversation, “escaping this place is still our only option, so for now, we’ll just need to focus on that and face whatever the hell’s outside when we get there.”

Ouma nods sagely. “Thinking ahead as always, Momota-chan—no wonder you’re our leader.” 

Momota rolls his eyes. “Now is not the fucking ti—”

“You’re right!” he says suddenly jumping on the spot. “Now’s the time for exploration, especially since I just unlocked Amami-chan’s lab!”

Kaede blinks. “Amami-kun’s…” she whips her head to stare down the hallway again, the red soaked room now suddenly taking on an almost sick quality in her mind’s eye.

“A-Ah,” Shirogane says. “You did say the door was locked, and the only place that would have a locked door would be…”

“The talent lab of our dearly departed Amami-chan,” Ouma says placing a finger to his lips. “Of course, some of us may know that a little better than others.”

Kaede glares at him as she turns to march down the hall ahead of the others more out of sheer rebellion than anything else. She picks her way through the rubble easily enough with the others only a step behind, and the oppressive atmosphere hanging over the deep red room almost knocks her off her feet completely. 

“What… what is this?” Shirogane asks distantly as she stares up at the strange ornaments hanging from the ceiling.

Momota walks past her and brushes a hand over the odd circular table in the center of the room. He mumbles aloud, “the fuck kinda talent did that guy have?”

Kaede can do little but stumble around the room. She remembers the deep crushing guilt that had flooded over her upon entering Saihara’s lab, but here, all she can feel is something anxious and sick. The hair stands on the back of her neck, and all she can think is how much she does not want to be in this place. How much she does not want to associate this place with the distant, soft spoken boy she had taken the life of.

She says, “It’s so… violent.”

Ouma seems as undisturbed as always as he inspects the room himself, fiddling with an out of place laptop this time. “Maybe Amami-chan was a violent person,” he says casually. He glances over at Kaede. “Is that the reason you took him out, Akamatsu-chan?”

She scowls. “I know you’ve made up your mind not to believe me, but I never wanted to hurt him. And,” she can’t help but stare at the ground. “I can’t believe that he would have wanted to hurt anyone, either.”

Ouma watches her for another moment before shrugging. “Could be,” he says nonchalantly before letting out a whine. “Ughhhh, Momota-chan—you’re good with science and computers, right? Help meeeee.”

Momota sighs but moves to hover over him with little protest other than a rather resigned, “Stop whining—I’m right here.” 

Ouma steps aside briefly to allow Momota to inspect the laptop while Kaede lets her eyes wander the room.

“Ugh,” Shirogane says, pressing her hands to her head. “I know it’s important to investigate this place, but being here just gives makes me feel plainly awful.”

“I get the feeling,” Kaede says softly. “This place almost looks like…” her voice drops even more in volume as she says, “the trial room…”

Before Shirogane can question her, Momota announces, “There’s nothing here.”

“What?” Kaede asks, moving to stand on his other side to catch a glimpse of the computer screen. “Is there nothing useful?”

“No, like,” he says. “There’s nothing on this computer to begin with, important shit or otherwise.”

“But if that’s true,” Kaede says. “Why is it here?”

“Maybe it’s a clue to his talent?” Shirogane asks.

Momota turns back to frown at her. “What kinda talent would involve a blank laptop?”

“Ah, well, really I’m just guess—”

“But can something go on it?” Ouma asks, voice serious. 

“Uh,” Momota looks down at him, mildly taken off guard. “Yeah, I think so. Why—you think there’s a program we need to download or something?”

Ouma doesn’t verbally respond to his prompting but instead swiftly pulls away from them to approach the towering safes on the far wall. Kaede follows his gaze to let her eyes briefly flicker over the various pictures of Monokuma crudely acting out astrological and zodiac signs. The meaning of it is completely lost on her as Ouma stares up at them intently. 

Shirogane suddenly gasps. “A-Ah, Ouma-kun, I-I know opening the safes is probably a good idea, but using the Exisals in such a small space might be really dangerous.”

Momota catches her drift and quickly adds, “And trying to blast open one of these might end up just destroying whatever’s inside.”

Very plainly, Kaede adds, “don’t get us killed, Ouma-kun.”

Ouma keeps looking up at the vaults before finally spinning on his heel, saying, “Hey, Momota-chan, I’ll make a deal with you—I won’t try and blast open the safes and get our next really important clue right now.”

Momota frowns. “But you’re gonna demand something fucking stupid in exchange for not killing all four of us.”

Ouma beams as he skips over to them. “After all this time you still have so little faith in me, Momota-chan! If I wanted something dumb like one of your space coats, I’d just take it—no deals needed.”

“Then what do you want?” Kaede asks, crossing her arms. “The Exisals are right outside the door, so you’re literally holding all of us hostage.”

He gives her a sideways look, saying, “So I am,” before turning back to Momota. “Basically all I want is for Momota-chan to stop bugging me about my remote, which I found in the first place anyway.” He grins, folding his hands behind his head. “That’s all! I’m sure my beloved Momota-chan understands, too.”

Momota sighs, rubbing the back of his head. “It’s always fucking something with you,” he says. “Fine, but just cause I’m not gonna bother you about it doesn’t mean the others have to do shit.”

Ouma salutes him. “Understood, fearless leader, Momota-chan. I will watch my back for assassin-chans like always.”

He rolls his eyes. “Leave her alone—haven’t you already pissed her off enough for one day?”

“It’s not my fault Harumaki-chan can’t take a joke,” Ouma says. “She’s been really stressed out lately what with all her plans to kill me, so I thought I’d lighten the mood, but then that just made her threaten to kill me more…”

“She’s not gonna try and kill anyone any—” Momota suddenly stutters, wincing slightly as he finishes. “Not gonna try and kill anyone now. We made a promise.”

Kaede looks at him quizzically, taking a step towards him as he grabs lightly at his side. “Kaito? Are you—”

“Super extra tired from having to listen to someone as annoying as Akamatsu-chan all day?” Ouma asks suddenly. “It’s okay—listening to her makes me wanna take a nap, too.”

Momota just shakes his head before speaking over Ouma to Kaede. “Sorry, Kaede, but… think I need to head back to my room for a little while.”

“You have been running around all day,” Shirogane says. “Please try and get some rest, Momota-kun.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “I think we’ve explored as much as we can already today, too.”

“Right,” he says, taking the first few steps away from them. “I’ll… see you guys later then.”

As he starts to walk away from them, Ouma follows, and Momota glances over his shoulder to say, “I don’t remember asking for a fucking escort.”

“Rude,” Ouma says. “I just happen to be going the same way with my robot army.” He skips a few feet ahead of him to spin back on his heel, saying, “Not everything’s about you, Momota-chan—you’re not the center of the universe, you know!”

Momota just snorts and ruffles Ouma’s hair much to the other boy’s annoyance as he passes, saying, “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, you little liar.”

Ouma huffs as he follows him out, and Kaede hears the twin Exisals take crashing steps at a leisurely pace down the hall. 

With the two of them gone, Shirogane muses aloud, “I’m never really sure if those two are getting along or not. Relationships where both people are tsunderes are plainly pretty hard to deal with.”

Though Ouma is far from her favorite person, Kaede can’t help but smile softly as she watches after them, remembering what Momota had said to her earlier that day. “As long as Kaito keeps him in line, I don’t think there will be any problems.”

Shirogane straightens at the sound of her voice, paling slightly as she seems to suddenly realize the two of them are alone. “Uh, y-yeah, hopefully…”

“Shirogane-san,” Kaede says, turning to her. “Um, you seem nervous—you’re not… afraid of me, are you?”

“Me?” she asks, jolting at the question. “N-No, of course not! I’m just, uh—well, plainly, um… I,” she sighs, seemingly done with trying to form some excuse, and looks at the ground. “I’m sorry, Akamatsu-san. I’m just… I _want_ to trust you—I really do—but…”

“No,” Kaede says. “I get it—I don’t think there’s a lot of trust going around right now anyway.”

“R-Right,” Shirogane says. “Like I said, though, I really do want to believe in you—I still remember all the speeches you used to give us about working together and getting out of here, but… it’s a little hard after… seeing the library.”

Kaede winces. “I…” it was so easy for her to snap at someone like Ouma or Maki, someone ready to hit her back if she swung at them, but faced with Shirogane cowering before her, doing so feels almost impossible. “Yeah. I’m not about to make excuses for what I did, but I still really do want to save everyone and get us all out of here.”

Shirogane nods. “That’d be nice, but—I hope you don’t mind me saying this, Akamatsu-san—you don’t really talk about hope or friendship as much as you used to when we first got here, and I’m not really sure what you’re thinking anymore…”

The accusation takes her back a bit, and Kaede says, “I… suppose that is true.”

“I mean, I don’t blame you,” Shirogane says quickly. “Staying hopeful and optimistic in a place like this would be hard for anyone, but I guess… I kinda miss the old Akamatsu-san.” She seems to notice Kaede’s discomfort, and adds, “Oh, but, that reminds me, I did really like what you said at the trial about how we all have to have hope and work together even in the face of despair.”

“I don’t think that’s quite what I said,” Kaede says. “But thank you, I guess. Though, it doesn’t seem like anyone really believes me now.”

“Ah, well,” she says. “Harukawa-san told us the details, and it was… plainly pretty hard to argue with that. But, I still agree with you—even if there isn’t anything left… I still want to hold on to the hope that there’s a reason to keep going.”

Kaede smiles gently. “I think that’s a really good idea. And I guess we don’t really have any other choice either, though.”

Shirogane smiles self deprecatingly. “Ah, no—I guess we don’t. As long as the mastermind’s still hiding among us, a-and as long as they’re willing to kill again like what they did to poor Yumeno-san,” she shakes her head. “Staying here plainly isn’t an option.”

“Right,” Kaede says. “No matter what happens, we can’t lose sight of our goal: finding the mastermind and making them let us out of here.”

“Oh?” Shirogane blinks. “I-Is that what happens when we find the mastermind? Ah, I guess this is pretty morbid of me, but,” she pales slightly as she hugs herself, “I don’t really like thinking about this, but I think I assumed… we’d have to kill them. Ugh,” she shakes her head again. “This is so awful.”

Kaede turns her words over in her head. “I,” her thoughts race to come up with something to say in response to her. Kill the mastermind. Kaede feels herself grow pale as she wonders, if she had the chance, would she kill the mastermind again? Amami’s lab seems to loom in on her, and her throat feels too tight as she says, “I guess we will. That’s,” she finds herself looking to the ground, too, “that’s the only way…”

Shirogane nods, grimly. “It’s horrible, but it’s our only option, right? No matter what, we can’t let despair win.”

Kaede forces herself to smile in agreement. “Right,” she says and feels far too sick to her stomach as they make the walk out of the room of the boy she killed so long ago.

-

The day stretches to evening, and Kaede goes to a poorly attended dinner of only herself, Shirogane, Ouma, and Maki. 

Ouma informs them that Momota’s staying in his room for the evening (“Momota-chan wore himself out playing leader all day, and needs his beauty sleep so he doesn’t get any uglier”), and Kaede notices that Maki tenses slightly, furrowing her brow. 

Kaede says, “I was going to take something back for Tenko-san and Hoshi-kun later, so I could—”

“Don’t bother,” Maki says, already standing. “I’m done. I’ll bring him something. Besides, we shouldn’t trust one person to make everyone’s meals anymore.”

“Ah,” Shirogane says looking up from her plate, rather distressed. “Is there a reason for—”

“We all have access to poison,” Maki says. “Eating food made by someone else is basically asking to be killed.”

“Duh,” Ouma says, reaching into his pocket to brandish a small bottle. “That’s why you have to carry antidote with you!”

Kaede blinks at the action. “You’re still carrying that around?”

“Of course,” he answers. “Why else did you think I took—hey!”

He yelps suddenly as Maki reaches forward to snatch the bottle out of his hand. As he protests, she brings the bottle up to read its label, saying, “‘best used to treat odorless poisons commonly slipped into food.’” She turns to glare at him. “Why do you have this?”

Ouma rolls his eyes. “In case anyone tries to poison me—I already said that, Harukawa-chan.”

“You expect us to believe that’s the only reason?” Maki says. 

He beams up at her. “Why, Harumaki-chan, are you accusing me of having an ulterior motive?”

“Um,” Shirogane says softly. “Now that I think about it… I _do_ remember Ouma-kun grabbing a bottle of poison when we inspected Saihara-kun’s lab, too…”

Maki scowls as she pockets the bottle, much to Ouma’s protests. “If anyone wants to eat food made by anyone else, it’s your funeral.”

“Ugh,” Shirogane says. “That’s probably true—I think I remember Iruma-san saying something like that, too, when we first discovered the poisons.”

“But wasn’t Iruma-chan reeeeally paranoid?” Ouma asks, face turning dark. “And didn’t that paranoia cause her to kill?”

Kaede glares at him. “You shouldn’t talk about her that way. Maybe she was paranoid, but—”

“She wasn’t wrong,” Maki says pointedly looking down at Kaede. “I know some of us like to talk about trusting each other, but we’re in a situation where everyone really is out to get you.”

Though part of her knows it’s not wrong, Kaede can’t help but feel the urge to argue against it. “So what—we’re just gonna all live in fear of each other?”

Maki narrows her eyes. “We’re in a killing game, and at least one of us has already gotten away with murder—of course we should be afraid of each other. Closing your eyes and pretending you’re not surrounded by murderers doesn’t make you safer. It makes you an easier target.”

“So we should all be ready to turn on each other?” Kaede says. “And working together is a pipedream because things obviously work out so much better when everyone acts on their own.”

Maki keeps her stare even before turning away. “If you want to twist my words, fine. I doubt you’re interested in listening to my warnings, and I know I have no interest in your delusional ideals. If you want to get more people killed for the sake of your worldview, so be it, but leave me out of it. I don’t have time to listen to your platitudes.”

Kaede rises to her feet. Distantly she hears Ouma chant, “ooh! Fight! Fight! Fight!” as Shirogane shrinks in on herself, attempting to blend in with her chair.

She says, “You know, Harukawa-san, I have to hand it to you—I am _amazed_ at how you’ve managed to convince yourself you have the moral high ground.”

Maki’s face darkens. “I don’t have time to care about ‘the moral high ground.’ I care about ending this game and killing the mastermind as soon as possible.”

“And you think I don’t!?” Kaede says, voice rising. “You think I haven’t been trying to do that since we got here? That I’m just sitting around—”

“I think you’re awfully eager to waste our time playing hero or to try and gain all of our trust and order us around,” Maki says tightly. “And even more eager to sacrifice people who want to live on whatever stupid whim you’re stuck on this time.”

Kaede’s hands clench into fists. “Well, _excuse me_ for getting upset when my friends die—something you obviously wouldn’t understand. Do you honestly think I’ve wanted to sacrifice anyone? That I’m happy when I have to send one of my friends to their deaths!?”

“ _I think_ ,” Maki says. “That you’ve done it before and you’re likely to do it again. I think you’ve gotten away with murder and have offered no explanation for how in the absolute hell that happened. I think you ingratiated yourself with the one person here who may have had a chance of solving the school’s mysteries and killed him to cover up your murder of the only person who obviously knew something about our situation.”

Maki shakes her head. “And I think everyone is completely out of their minds to trust someone like you.”

Kaede sees red. “Well, I’m so sorry that even after saving everyone over and over again, I don’t have the amazing track record of protecting people to live up to the standards of an assassin.”

Maki glares at her silently for a long moment before saying, “talking to you is a waste of time,” as she picks up a plate of food and exits the dining hall, the doors clacking behind her. 

Ouma calls after her, “You forgot to give me back my antidote, Harumaki-chan!” as Kaede slumps back into her chair, the energy she felt earlier draining out of her body in a flash, leaving her exhausted and aching.

The previously quiet meal continues in dead silence after that, and Kaede moves a bit too eagerly to grab two plates of food in her hasty retreat out of the cafeteria. Shirogane offers her a hesitant goodbye at the gesture while Ouma nonchalantly reminds her not to stop by Saihara’s lab on her way to the dorms with a wink.

The cold night air is almost refreshing as Kaede steps outside, though her injured arm aches in protest at having to carry a plate covered in food. It isn’t a surprise, but Kaede can’t help but count it as a blessing that she doesn’t run into anyone on her way to the dorms, though she remains pointedly aware that Maki is likely lurking around somewhere. Though she had never gotten along with her, even just the thought of the other girl makes Kaede feel flashes of some sick, rotten anger. Part of her realizes there isn’t even a logic to it anymore—simply a blind feeling of disgust, but turning over her previous conversation with Maki does little in convincing her to think otherwise. 

She takes a moment to let out a deep breath and calm herself as she sets one plate on the ground to ring the intercom next to the door to Tenko’s room. “It’s me,” she calls. 

Kaede waits and hears the sounds of shifting inside and a few footsteps before a rather exhausted looking Tenko pulls the door open. “Kaede-san,” she says before spying the food in her hands. “Ah, thank you for bringing Hoshi-kun dinner.” She moves out of the way to let her by. “He’s still just inside.”

Kaede peers past her to see Hoshi’s managed to move to one of the couches in the time she’s been gone, leg still propped up on a pillow. She nods at the plate of food on the ground next to her, saying, “I brought dinner for you, too.”

“Oh,” Tenko blinks at it, almost as if she had never seen food before. “Thank you, Kaede-san. Tenko will eat later.”

Kaede frowns as she reaches down to pick it up. “Haven’t you been spending all day running around taking care of us? How are you not hungry?”

“Um,” Tenko fidgets at the question. “Really, Tenko’s fine. She has snacks here like the cookies and earlier she left to—”

“She’s lying,” Hoshi says from his spot on the couch. “Chabashira’s barely eaten anything and she hasn’t left the room since you woke up this morning.”

Tenko glares at him for tattling on her while Kaede walks over to set the two plates on a small clearing on the still crowded table. “Tenko would like to remind Hoshi-san that she is watching his health and not the other way around.”

He shrugs. “Just figured Akamatsu would want to know. Maybe she can convince you or something. Sides,” he gives her a sideways look. “You hate people keeping secrets, right? Only seems fair to me.”

Tenko crosses her arms, still clearly annoyed while Kaede turns to her, not bothering to hide her concern. “Tenko-san,” she says. “Are you really okay? You,” she stops for a moment to take in the other girl, trying to gauge the thinness of her face and the bags under her eyes. “You’re… actually you’re not okay, are you?”

Tenko doesn’t meet her eyes as she fidgets uncomfortably under Kaede’s stare. “Tenko’s just been busy with other things—there just hasn’t been time to really sit down and eat or take a nap, that’s all.”

Kaede knows that that is absolutely not true. Tenko makes a few more excuses for herself, Kaede can’t help but think how she doesn’t laugh or smile or get excited the way she used to anymore. Kaede interrupts her to say, “Then why don’t you take the night off.”

“What?” Tenko asks.

“Hoshi-kun and I might be hurt, but I think we can handle a few hours alone, right?”

She turns to Hoshi for approval, and he nods. “Akamatsu seems pretty fine on her feet—no need to worry about us if you want a break.”

Tenko presses her mouth into a tight, thin line. “Tenko is fine. Taking care of you is more important than—”

“Letting yourself get some air?” Kaede asks. “I’m serious—maybe just go eat out under the arbor or something. And also,” her voice turns serious. “You know you can talk to me if you need to, right? I know I wasn’t around much today, but I promise that’ll I be there if you ask.”

Tenko looks away and pauses for a moment. “Maybe some fresh air would be good,” she says softly. “But Tenko would like to change the bandage on your arm first, Kaede-san.”

“Oh, uh,” Kaede glances down to her injured arm that she was not nearly as gentle with as Tenko had instructed. “Right.”

They sit near Hoshi, who watches absently as he fiddles with a fresh pack of candy cigarettes. Tenko appropriately chastise Kaede for straining herself and exiles her to sitting at the far end of the couch, her arm placed just so on the armrest. 

When she finishes, Tenko seems ready to rescind her agreement to taking a break until Hoshi says, “think you forgot something, Chabashira,” and gestures to her still untouched food.

For all the sympathy and care she had shown that day, Tenko gives him a rather dark look before picking up the plate. “Yes,” she says tightly. “Tenko almost forgot. Thank you for reminding her, Hoshi-san.”

She still hesitates by the door for a moment, saying, “Tenko will be back soon, but don’t be afraid to come get her if something happens.”

“We’ll be fine. Have a nice meal, Tenko-san,” Kaede says. 

“Ah,” Tenko looks down at the plate in her hands. “Tenko… will try.”

She leaves, and as soon as the door closes, Hoshi says, “What do you think the chances are she dumps it first chance she gets?”

Kaede sighs as she leans back into the couch. “Too high.” She presses her free hand to her face. “I noticed this earlier, but I didn’t say anything—I’m a pretty awful friend.”

“Didn’t say anything either, then betrayed her and tried to get everyone killed,” Hoshi says. “I’m a pretty awful person.”

“Don’t say that,” Kaede says. “To be honest, after talking to the others, basically everyone said they still want to live, but they don’t really blame you for what you did. And,” she sighs. “It seems like the outside world might actually be gone, at least according to them.”

“Nah,” Hoshi says. “I like your ‘people who clean up the bodies’ theory.” He turns to her with a teasing smile. “Gotta be an outside world if that’s true.”

“I could be right,” Kaede insists, smiling wryly. “And, if everything’s gone, I wanna know how they got technology as advanced as Monokuma and where they’re getting the food to restock the kitchen everyday.”

Hoshi thinks for a second, pulling out another cigarette. “Maybe they already had some food stockpiled. Maybe Chabashira wouldn’t throw it away if she knew there was a limited supply.”

“We don’t know there’s a limited supply,” Kaede counters.

“We don’t not know there’s a limited supply,” Hoshi says. “Or maybe, not not not a limited supply.”

Kaede lets out a short laugh. “Stop—you’re sounding like Ouma-kun, and I really don’t need two of him in my life.”

“That’s fair,” he says. “Speaking of which, though, how are the others? Still at each other’s throats?”

“Mostly at my throat, but yeah,” she says. “I got into a fight with Harukawa-san earlier so that was a good choice. Oh, and Ouma-kun blew up part of the school.”

Hoshi nods. “You know, Akamatsu, not to downplay your fights with Harukawa, but I feel like one of those things is slightly more important than the other.”

“I mean, you’re right,” Kaede says. “And it’s probably really, really bad that that’s the thing I’m less mad about, right?”

He shrugs. “Not sure I can argue with that, but, well, I don’t know how badly Ouma blew up the school.”

“Uh, not that badly,” she says. “I think he mostly did it just to see if he could get away with it.”

“And?”

“And he did,” Kaede says. “Monokuma doesn’t have the Exisals anymore, so he can’t punish us. Or, at least, that was Ouma-kun’s logic.”

“Makes sense,” Hoshi says. “So what’s step two, then? Fight back?”

Kaede thinks for a moment. “I might… try and get the remote or at least try and convince Ouma-kun to blow up another door for me—if we can take down the door in the library, we might be able to get the upper hand on the mastermind.”

“Fair point,” Hoshi says. “By the way—who do you think it is?”

“The mastermind?” Kaede asks. “I… I don’t think I have a guess.”

He gives her a hard stare. “Not to call you a liar, Akamatsu, but that’s pretty hard to believe. You’ve been after them for so long, but you don’t suspect any of us?”

Kaede goes silent. Softy she says, “there are people I know it can’t be, but… eliminating suspects is different from accusing people, and God knows I do enough of that.”

Hoshi nods. “Guess no matter what the answer is, it’s gonna be bad.”

“Right,” she says, grimacing. “When we find them, the game is over, but it also means we learn which one of our friends wanted us all to die.”

Hoshi lets out a humorless laugh. “For my sake, maybe don’t phrase it like that.”

“Ah,” Kaede says. “Right, sorry, Hoshi-kun. By the way, um,” she bites her lip, “I hope you don’t mind me asking this, but everyone seems pretty convinced the world’s destroyed, and I know you still think it is so… do you still think we should give up?”

He sighs, leaning back into the couch to match her. “Don’t know,” he says. “Think I’m just… focusing on what’s right in front of me, and Chabashira said that’s fixing my leg so… that’s what I’m doing.”

“I see,” Kaede says. She pauses for a moment, weighing her next words, but chooses to press onwards. “Kaito kinda brought up the possibility that maybe after we defeat the mastermind, the world will still be destroyed, and, well, I guess I’m not sure what we do then. So maybe I’m just focusing on what’s right in front of me, too.” 

“When you’re in hell, it’s a little hard to think of the future,” Hoshi says. “That being said, I still don’t know. Think I’m just… numbed to the idea of trying to find out if my life’s worth anything. Any answer I get will just lead to more pain, so think I’ve decided to just stop asking. And I don’t think I’m gonna try and make that decision for anyone else again.”

Kaede nods, trying to imagine what it must be like to feel his pain, to have let the idea that there really is no one out there actually sink into her mind. “Hoshi-kun, I know you might not believe me, but I do think you’re a really strong person. You’ve lived feeling this way for so long, but when I heard that there was a chance my old life was gone, I couldn’t even consider it. I decided it had to be a lie.”

“That doesn’t make you weak,” he says softly. “And me ghosting through life after everything’s that happened doesn’t make me strong.”

Kaede pulls her knees up to her chest. “You’re right… but maybe judging people as ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ isn’t the right way to look at things. I don’t know what the right way is, but after everything that’s happened, I don’t think it’s that.”

Hoshi smiles wryly. “That reminds me of what Chabashira said—judging people that way is like you’re trying to figure out who deserves to live.”

“And everyone deserves to live,” Kaede finishes. She sighs again. “How was Tenko-san today, by the way?”

“Well,” Hoshi says. “In spite of the fact that she still hates me, she did everything she could for me. Though now I have to wonder if it was out of the goodness of her heart or because she’s just trying to take her mind off things.”

“I don’t think she hates you,” she says. “I think… she’s just going through a lot.”

Hoshi looks at his cigarette. “She thinks I betrayed her—that’s why she told me to go to hell at the trial. Can’t say I blame her, though. Think she thought that we were going through the same thing, but then,” he shrugs. “Guess it didn’t work out.”

“People handle grief differently,” Kaede says. “At least, that’s what I’ve always heard.”

“Yeah,” he says. Silence floats between them for a moment before he says, “Akamatsu, it’s kinda late for me to say this, but back during Gonta’s trial, I shouldn’t have said that crap to you about Saihara.”

“Ah, no,” Kaede says, glancing to her lap. “I know that you were just upset, and it wasn’t really a fair comparison.”

“Still,” Hoshi says. “Shouldn’t have said it. Can’t pretend I know what he meant to you, but saying you don’t deserve to feel bad about his death was, well,” he sighs, “it was pretty shitty of me. Just… you don’t… meet people who don’t have ulterior motives a lot. They just want to help people or be your friend because they think it’s the right thing to do. They just… want to be a good person.”

Kaede looks at him, and very softly says, “I’m so sorry, Hoshi-kun. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know… but,” and something she didn’t know she had been holding back seems to crack all of a sudden, “I miss everyone who died. I miss all my friends.”

She rubs at her eyes with her good hand, and Hoshi says, “I’d say something like ‘they wouldn’t want you to cry,’ but I don’t give a shit. I miss everyone, too. Even the people I didn’t know or the people I hated. There’s so much crap everyone says about ‘living for them’ or ‘finding justice,’ but…”

Kaede lets out a short, humorless laugh, “it all seems like bullshit now, huh? I used to think that way, and I think part of me still wants to. At the trials, sometimes when I figure something out, I feel satisfied for a second—like I solved a puzzle or whatever. But when it’s over, I don’t remember the tricks or whatever logic I used. The only thing that sticks with me is… the horror. How much I failed them and… how much pain they were in when they died.”

Hoshi nods silently. Then he says, “Iruma’s… was quick at least. Was kinda out of it, but it seemed like she probably didn’t suffer as much as some of the others.” 

“It was still pretty awful.” Kaede rests her chin on her knees, and lets her eyes drift to the monopad still sitting in the corner. “Any luck with Kiibo-kun, by the way?”

He shakes his head. “Chabashira tried a few more times, but he just said he needed some time. Not planning to force him to do anything. Though, that was the strategy with Chabashira and…”

Kaede sighs. “You’re right—it’s a bit harder though when he can physically turn himself off.”

“No kidding,” Hoshi says. “Still, it’s barely been a day.” He pulls out another cigarette. “Suppose there’s no time to mourn in hell.”

“No,” Kaede says. “I guess there isn’t.”

-

Tenko’s walk to the arbor is one that begins with her stopping in her tracks almost immediately as she spies two figures sitting side by side on the table, feet idly resting on the bench. Momota’s easy to identify, even in near silhouette, and though the other figure takes her a bit more time, Tenko stiffens when she realizes it’s Maki. 

The thought briefly flickers into her mind if she should simply try to escape back into the dorms or elsewhere in the school, when Momota seems to notice her. “Hey, Chabashira,” he calls. “What are you doing out here?”

Tenko frowns, remaining guarded as she approaches, saying only, “Kaede-san insisted Tenko get some air while she eats dinner.”

She moves to take a hesitant seat next to him, as he nonchalantly says, “Sounds good,” ignoring or oblivious to the sudden tension brewing around him. “Haven’t really seen you much at meals lately.”

Her mouth pulls into a tight line. “Tenko… prefers not going to the cafeteria if she does not have to.”

“Uh,” he says, immediately catching her meaning. “Right. But, seriously, Chabashira, have you eaten a full meal since… you know.”

Maki answers for her. “She hasn’t. Hoshi said as much at the trial.”

Tenko isn’t sure how to argue against that, choosing to say, “Tenko appreciates your concern, but she can handle herself.” She pointedly begins to pick at her food, saying, “And she would prefer not to talk about this anymore. She knows boys can be very invasive, but—” 

Momota laughs slightly. “Don’t worry—I’ll stop. Just worried about you, is all. You’ve kinda been running around and taking care of everyone but yourself—that shit’s not good for you, you know.”

Tenko opens her mouth to respond when Maki quirks an eyebrow saying, “Really? So you’re a hypocrite now, too?”

He laughs again. “Geeze, Harumaki—pulling no punches tonight, huh?”

Maki crosses her arms. “You obviously don’t listen to reason, so you’ve reduced my options entirely to brute force.”

“And I thought I said you don’t have to worry about me,” Momota says. “Like Chabashira said—it’s cool you care, but I can handle myself. I mean, I am Momota Kaito Lu—”

“Has Momota-san been straining himself again?” Tenko asks. 

Maki assess her coldly for a moment before saying, “he has. I understand you’ve been playing nurse all day, so you can tell Momota from experience exactly how poorly equipped we are if he hurts himself.”

Momota rolls his eyes. “Not gonna fucking hurt myself. Keep telling you, Harumaki—I’m fine, right Chabashira?” He turns to her. “You checked me out a while ago, and everything was great, right?”

Tenko furrows her brow, unsure what she walked into the middle of. “It’s been a while since Tenko checked, but,” she says slowly, still weighing the situation. “When she did, Momota-san’s injuries didn’t seem to be healing right to her.”

“I see.” Maki shifts her glare to Momota. “So,” she says. “Are you going to admit to lying now?”

He rubs the back of his head. “Chabashira never told me that,” he says with a sigh. “Fine—maybe I’m not in great shape, but I already told you there’s no need to worry about me. And,” his smile returns, “I didn’t drag you all the way out here to talk about me, Harumaki.”

“I know,” she says, narrowing her eyes. “You want to lecture me, right? Try to convince me to believe in Ouma or Akamatsu based on you ‘having a good feeling’ about them? Actually,” she leans around him to stare at Tenko again. “Is it a coincidence that Akamatsu’s guard dog showed up?”

Tenko bristles. “Kaede-san is Tenko’s friend, and she has defended her when she is threatened.”

“And me being in the same room as her counts as a threat?” Maki levies. “If you think anyone missed the way she would cower behind you then—”

“Hey,” Momota says. “Harumaki, I get you hate Kaede, but your problem’s with her, not Chabashira.”

Maki’s eyes flick back to him, and she says tightly, “I don’t know who my problem is. None of us know, and also none of us are willing to try and discover who it is.”

Momota frowns. “Are you… talking about the mastermind?”

“I’m talking about how we have to be willing to suspect each other of being the mastermind, yes,” she says before shifting her darkening gaze back to Tenko. “Even though some of us have dedicated themselves to blindly protecting the most likely suspect.”

Tenko returns her stare. “Tenko believes in Kaede-san, and she has said this before and she will say it again: Tenko would rather die then be able to believe in her friends.”

“Then you’ll die,” Maki says. “Because belief like that is impossible here.”

“Belief isn’t the problem,” Momota says. “People needing to believe in each other is just the way things are. I mean, yeah, people might hide shit, but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad person.” He shrugs. “Everybody has secrets—”

“Well one of us has a very big secret,” Maki says. “Because _everyone_ talks about how we need to find the mastermind and how this killing game is horrible, _and_ one of us has to be lying.” 

Tenko says softly, “That is true, but… Tenko stands by what she said. She knows one of her friends will betray her, and that that will be painful, but,” she shakes her head, “not being able to trust anyone or suspecting someone blindly because she’s too afraid—Tenko doesn’t think that’s a life she would want to live.”

Maki says, “the mastermind killed Yumeno. One of us did it, and they’re hiding among us and pretending to be your friend. You really think you shouldn’t suspect everyone?”

Momota frowns, “Hey, Harumaki—”

“Tenko doesn’t,” she says evenly. “And Tenko also knows that whoever killed Yumeno-san has walked right up to her and smiled. She knows that,” her grip on the plate tightens. “She knows she couldn’t protect Yumeno-san, and she doesn’t know who else she’s going to fail to protect, but if she gives into her distrust or her hatred, then she’d be doing exactly what Yumeno-san’s killer wants.”

“Chabashira,” Momota says. “Fuck,” he runs a hand through his hair. “Didn’t know you had all that going on…”

“Tenko knows her grief might consume her if she doesn’t—”

“If you found out who killed Yumeno,” Maki says, “what would you do then? If they were to reveal themselves tomorrow, would you let them live when they didn’t show her the same mercy?”

Tenko furrows her brow as she returns Maki’s even gaze. “Tenko wants to see them brought to justice—she wants them to be punished for what they have done, but she would never kill them.”

Maki crosses her arms, and her voice isn’t challenging when she asks, “and why is that?”

“Because they deserve to live,” Tenko says. “All of us deserve to live.”

Maki stares at her for another moment before scoffing. “You’re just like Akamatsu, after all—reality means nothing to you if it gets in the way of your ideals.”

“Harumaki,” Momota says. “If you found out who it was, would you wanna kill them?”

“What I want to do doesn’t matter,” Maki snaps. “It’s not about choice or about my feelings—it’s about eliminating the target and finishing the mission.”

“And your mission is to kill the mastermind?” Momota asks. “Listen… I get what you’re trying to do, but I think Chabashira’s right. You can’t fucking end a killing game with more—”

“We don’t have the luxury to think about that,” she says. “I know Akamatsu and Ouma,” she sends a pointed look to Tenko, “And now Chabashira, too, like to lord their philosophies over me, but all that shows is that they don’t understand.”

Tenko furrows her brow and says carefully, “What don’t we understand?”

Maki clenches and unclenches her hands a few times before saying to the ground. “I doubt you’ll listen, but we need to get out of here as soon as possible—I’ve known that ever since Angie’s trial. The fastest way to do that is to kill the mastermind. I don’t care if that makes me a monster or as horrible as they are or even if it what they want. We just need to escape.”

“I get wanting to get out,” Momota says. “And like hell I’d want to spend another second here if I had the choice, but… what do mean ‘since Angie’s trial?’”

She clenches her jaw and pauses for a long moment before she very tightly says, “You’re running out of time. Every second we’re here is a second we’re not finding a doctor or medicine.”

“Oh…” is all Tenko finds herself able to say.

Momota lets out a low sigh. “That’s why you were trying to go after Ouma, huh? He was your best guess at the mastermind because of the shit with the blackout. And then… fuck…”

Maki says, “I was taught to do one thing: find my target and eliminate them. That’s how you solve things in my world.”

“But,” Tenko says. “What if you hurt someone innocent instead?”

“If it means ending the game quickly,” Maki says. “Then that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. And as there gets to be less of us, I have a better shot of getting it right.”

“No,” Momota says shaking his head, suddenly angry. “No—you are not gonna fucking gamble your life like that. Harumaki, we made a promise, and—”

“And for now,” Maki says. “I’m planning on fulfilling that. But every second we spend hiding behind the idea that we’re all friends is another second we’re trapped in the mastermind’s game. I know you don’t like it—and it shouldn’t be something you like—but if killing is the only way out,” she hardens her gaze as she looks over both of them, daring them to challenge her. “Then we have to be willing to do it.”

Momota sighs. “Jesus, Harumaki. How do you fucking do it?”

She blinks, clearly taken aback by his response. “Excuse me?”

“Even thinking about killing someone fucking messed with my head,” he says. “I don’t know how you do it.”

She crosses her arms, though it seems almost more like she’s hugging herself. “I do it because that’s what I was trained to do. That was my life. You mentioned before on one of the first times you came to me that there was more to me than just killing, but… that’s not true. I was hollowed out to become this, and I’m barely even a person anymore. But maybe that’s finally a good thing.”

“Harukawa-san?” Tenko says.

Maki shakes her head. “You’ve made your philosophy on life very clear—I doubt we’ll ever be able to understand each other.”

Momota waits in silence as they talk, turning her words over before finally saying, “Harumaki, I don’t think what you said about you barely being human or whatever is true. I mean, if there really wasn’t anything left of you, you wouldn’t care so much about stopping this game and saving us.” He smiles. “You wouldn’t care so much about getting me out of here.”

She frowns as she moves to tug on her pigtails. “Do you… want to die?”

He laughs. “Nah,” and he points up at the sky. “Not until I go to space. Here, let’s make a new promise.” He reaches out to grab one hand from either girl, both of them recoiling at the gesture. 

“You can make your promise without touching Tenko,” Tenko says, lip curling up in distaste.

“Aw, come on,” Momota says. “It makes it official.”

“Are you seven?” Maki asks.

Momota grins, ignoring her as he says, “I, Momota Kaito, Luminary of the Stars, promise that I’m gonna save both of you. Stop the killing game, kick the mastermind’s ass, and sort everything else out as it comes.”

Maki and Tenko give him twin looks of disapproval, and he balks, asking how they could possibly doubt him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this might be, "serious conversations about the killing game: the chapter," haha. A few things conspired against my finishing of this chapter, and I'm afraid I'm still going to be busy for the next coming weeks, so thanks for bearing with me during this slower schedule!


	29. Daily Life XII

Kaede is a bit confused for a few seconds when she wakes up that morning, but she realizes quickly enough where she is when she identifies Hoshi and Tenko’s forms on the bed and couch, respectively. Her head aches just a little, but it compares little to the soreness in her arm.

Hoshi and Tenko both appear to still be asleep, and Kaede winces as she moves to sit upright and has to grit her teeth to stop from making any noise when she accidentally puts weight on her injured arm for half a second. The other day, the pain had been minimal, or at least not at the forefront of her mind, but now—after having spent almost all of yesterday casually jostling her arm as she pleased—each too quick movement sends a sharp jab through her already aching muscles.

Perhaps her attempts to stay quiet didn’t work quite as well as she was hoping, or its simply the slight shifting of the bed as she rises to stand, but Hoshi begins to stir on the other side of the bed as soon as she’s on her feet. Kaede looks over him to see Tenko still motionless on the couch other than the gentle rise and fall of her chest. The other girl had come back rather late the night before, and after the day she had had, Kaede felt a quiet determination to let her sleep as long as possible.

Hoshi pushes himself up on to his elbows and looks to Kaede briefly before letting his still tired eyes follow her gaze to Tenko. There’s a silent understanding between them that cause him to whisper his question, “Morning announcement play yet?”

Kaede shakes her head. “No,” she whispers back. “But I usually wake up before it anyways. You could probably try and sleep some more if you want.”

“No,” he says, moving to sit up right, grimacing only slightly when he shifts his leg. “When I’m up, I’m up. Even if there’s nothing for us to do, probably still isn’t a great idea to just sleep the day away.”

“I guess not,” Kaede frowns. “But what do you mean ‘nothing for us to do?’”

“Well, I have nothing to do at least besides not screw up and get someone killed,” Hoshi says with a shrug. “Suppose you have your plan to try and convince Ouma to listen to anyone for the first time ever today.”

“Yeah, and I’ll… try to see how that goes,” Kaede says. “But there has to be something everyone else can do, too.”

Hoshi just gives her a nonchalant look before reaching into his pocket to fish out another cigarette. “If you can think of anything, sure. I mean, I don’t want to be deadweight if I can help it, but, well,” he finds his cigarette and pauses for a moment to fiddle with it between his fingers. “The hell else are you supposed to do to stop a killing game other than just… not kill.”

Kaede swallows. “I,” she says, eyes darting around the room to try and find something to prove him wrong even though she can’t place quite why she’s so determined to do so. Her eyes land on Iruma’s former monopad, and she forces down the pain that shoots through her arm on her first shaky step towards it. She picks it up with her good hand and gestures vaguely at Hoshi with it. “Well, we can try and talk to Kiibo-kun, right?”

Hoshi doesn’t say anything, simply giving her a rather skeptical look at Kaede walks back to him, Kiibo in hand. At his side, Kaede realizes that trying to navigate the monopad would likely require use of both of her hands, and she quickly turns to hold it out to Hoshi, hoping he didn’t notice her brief hesitation. 

For his part, he takes it, though still looking at her rather dubiously as she leans down to get a look at the screen. Hoshi spares her one last glance before sighing and moving his hand over the monopad in an attempt to get some sort of response.

They wait for a moment in silence before the screen eventually flickers on to reveal the normal background of the monopad. Kaede waits a few more moments for something to happen before finally softly calling out, “Kiibo-kun? If you’re ready, we’d like to talk a little.”

Nothing happens, and Hoshi shakes his head. “Don’t feel too bad if he doesn’t respond to you,” he says to Kaede. “After the first time yesterday where he showed up only to tell us to leave him alone, this is what happened whenever Chabashira tried.”

Kaede frowns, still staring at the screen. “Kiibo-kun,” she tries again. “I promise it won’t be for long—I just explored the school a little yesterday and wanted to give you an update.”

Hoshi adds, “Akamatsu just wants to keep you in the loop—that’s all.”

There’s silence for a few more long seconds before the monopad finally switches to black with Kiibo’s face staring at them from the center of the screen. “Hello,” he says, voice perhaps even more formal than usual. “I am sorry I was not responsive yesterday. I was attempting to take sometime to sort out… personal feelings I do not believe I have ever quite felt before. Forgive my absence.”

Kaede tries to give him an encouraging smile, pangs of empathy hurting her heart at his words. “It’s okay,” she says softly. “Everyone needs time, even if that’s kind of hard to get around here.”

Kiibo frowns, furrowing his brow. “I suppose. However, if you do not mind me being overly direct, I would prefer to simply discuss our current situation.”

Hoshi nods. “Fine by me—Akamatsu?”

He shifts the screen slightly to face her a little more, and Kaede dutifully goes over her discoveries in exploring, along with a few slightly sugarcoated reports about the current state of the group. Hoshi regards her warily during the latter but doesn’t contradict her, only saying, “So that’s where we’re at,” when she finishes.

“I see,” Kiibo says. “If that is the case so far, I will try to be around more, if you call upon me. However,” his face shifts, changing something to vaguely distressed. “I believe there are still a few things I need to sort out… my emotions along with a few other things that seem curious to me.”

Kaede raises her eyebrows. “What kind of things?”

“It is hard to describe,” he says. “But… while I have finished installing the various programs… Iruma-san set up, a few of them still have not been fully elucidated to me.”

“Can’t say I know much about computers,” Hoshi says. “But does that mean there’s some stuff in your brain you don’t understand?”

“Not quite,” Kiibo says. “However, I’m afraid it is difficult to describe. I will try to get back to you as soon as possible once I have completed my diagnostics examination of them.”

“Okay,” Kaede says. “And we’ll try to report in or wake you up when something is happening on our end.”

He nods. “Alright. I will be counting on you then.”

With that, his face disappears without another word, leaving Kaede with little to do other than blink at the suddenly normal monopad in Hoshi’s hands. “So,” Hoshi says, clicking it off. “Any guesses about what he was talking about?”

“Not really,” Kaede says. “I know Kiibo-kun had said in the past he wasn’t very good with computers, so maybe he’s confused by it even when it… is him?”

Hoshi shrugs as he reaches up to hand her the monopad. “That or he’s lying to get us off his back.”

Kaede winces as she takes it. “I guess that’s also a possibility.”

“Do have to wonder,” Hoshi says, “what kind of person would program a robot to have emotions and then stick them in a killing game.”

“Well,” Kaede says. “His creator probably didn’t intend for him to get stuck here, though actually…” she frowns, something suddenly occurring to her. “Wait, um, Hoshi-kun, you know about the Gofer plan, right?”

He blinks up at her. “Only a few things,” he says. “Why?”

“You know I mentioned how I found some more information on it when I was searching the school with the others?” she says. “Well, I was just thinking that isn’t it kind of weird that a robot would be included among the sixteen chosen students in a program meant to preserve the human race?”

“Huh,” Hoshi says. “Maybe… he was supposed to have a different role then or something? And well,” he sighs. “If they chose someone like me, chances are they were scrapping the bottom of the barrel anyway.”

Kaede bites her lip. “Maybe. Just… how bad were things before the program?”

“Beats me,” he says. “Just know they’re even worse now.”

Kaede isn’t exactly sure what to say to that, and finds her eyes falling to the ground as the morning announcement finally starts playing on the monitors. Monokuma seems particularly agitated, practically shouting his message to the point of jolting Tenko awake on her place on the couch.

She stutters in still half asleep surprise, saying, “T-Tenko’s awake—Tenko’s…” before blinking her eyes to take in her surroundings. 

“Morning,” Kaede calls out gently as Tenko starts rubbing at her eyes.

Dully, Hoshi says, “He seems upset about something.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “And that’s… probably not great for us.”

“No,” Hoshi says, finally bringing his cigarette to his mouth. “Guess not.”

“Is something happening?” Tenko asks, stretching to a standing position.

Kaede turns to her, trying to smile as positively as she can. “Well,” she says. “We talked to Kiibo-kun a little so that’s good.”

Tenko glances to the monopad held limply in Kaede’s hand. “Kiibo-san is doing alright, then?”

“Hard to say,” Hoshi answers plainly. “Mostly he just said he’ll actually respond when we try to get his attention.”

Tenko’s posture tightens. “And… he didn’t say anything else?”

“Well,” Kaede says. “He said he was going over some more of his programming, but there isn’t much we can do for him there.”

“Ah,” Tenko says. “Right. Tenko understands.”

“I think he wants us to tell him if anything important happens,” Kaede continues. “But other than that, we’re kind of stuck. And… I don’t think he wants to talk about what happened.”

Silence threatens to fall over them when Hoshi looks to Kaede and says, “So, what can we do then?”

“Uh,” Kaede blinks at the echo of their conversation only moments before. “Well, I guess we should go to the cafeteria to meet the others and… see whatever’s happening with Monokuma.”

Tenko holds her hands close to her chest. “If Monokuma wants us altogether does that mean he has another motive?”

Kaede feels a deep dread suddenly flood over her even as she forces herself to smile and hurrying to assure her. “Even if he does, I don’t think anyone left would try anything,” she lies. “None of us trust Monokuma, and if the world outside is gone, there’s no reason to try and escape, right?”

Neither Tenko nor Hoshi seem convinced, and Tenko softly says, “Is it possible to just not go? If we’re not all there, Monokuma will still present the motive, but…” She shakes her head. “Tenko doesn’t know—every possibility seems too dangerous.”

“Doesn’t help that me and Akamatsu are hurt,” Hoshi says, reaching to fiddle with his cigarette again. “By the way, Akamatsu, how’s your arm?”

“It’s fine,” Kaede says, trying to keep her voice casual. “Though, you actually reminded me of something—Hoshi-kun, how are you going to get around the school with your leg?”

He sighs. “Good question. Chabashira suggested using one of those moon buggy things she got from the store, but…”

Tenko huffs. “It doesn’t matter if it makes you look ‘uncool.’”

Hoshi rolls his eyes, and Kaede can immediately tell this is an argument they’ve already had a few times. “You can call me a prideful idiot as much as you want, but I’m not driving around in that thing—and we both know it’s terrible at turning, too.”

“It’s the only thing we have!” Tenko says. “It’s either that or Tenko has to carry you everywhere.”

“Chabashira,” Hoshi says. “There are other options.”

“Yes,” she says. “The moon buggy that Tenko got.”

Kaede can’t help but smile as she says, “I really don’t think anyone will care even if you do look silly, Hoshi-kun.”

Hoshi lets out an exasperated sigh. “I am not using the moon buggy.”

Tenko crosses her arms, a familiar, displeased look on her face. “Tenko _guesses_ we could find something to use as crutches, but the moon buggy is the best option.”

“Crutches it is, then,” Hoshi says.

Tenko huffs but complies, shifting through her pile of items until she finds something that seems to be sturdy enough and roughly the right height. She approaches with it in hand, and Kaede quickly moves to ensure the hand she reaches out to help Hoshi finally stand is her good one.

He’s shaky on his feet at first and clearly in pain when he shifts his weight onto his bag leg, but also shrugs off Kaede’s offers of help, while Tenko looks on with obvious disapproval at his choice as he slowly does a test walk to the door.

In spite of the obvious struggle the short walk was, Hoshi, to his credit, doesn’t look too worse for wear. “Guess all that training was good for something after all,” he says absently. “Never imagined I would need to be in shape to use crutches, but here we are.”

“Do you think you can make it like that to the school?” Kaede asks.

He nods. “Yeah—probably be a bit slow, but that was going to be the case no matter what. Besides, it’s not like any of us are in a hurry to hear Monokuma’s motive.”

“Ah,” Kaede says, whatever short moment of victory had been emerging suddenly seeming meaningless. “Right. The others are probably all already there, too, huh?”

“Everyone will be in the cafeteria, right?” Tenko says softly, arms still crossed protectively around herself.

Kaede winces. “Yeah—it probably won’t be long though, or maybe Hoshi-kun and I could go and tell you what happened aft—”

“No,” Tenko says, shaking her head. “You and Hoshi-san are both hurt. Tenko,” she takes a deep breath. “Tenko is going, and both of you will stay behind her.”

Kaede reaches forward to touch her arm with her good hand. “You really don’t have to. I’m sure it will only take a few minutes at most.”

Tenko frowns, shifting restlessly as she says, “No, Tenko needs to go. She… does not like the cafeteria, but Tenko isn’t going to put more of her friends in danger because of that.”

“Tenko-san,” Kaede says softly.

From the door, Hoshi says, “So you think it’s really that bad, huh? That even being alone with the others for a few minutes might—”

“Tenko doesn’t want to think that, but,” she pauses, seeming to debate something before continuing, “we can’t know what everyone else is thinking, or what Monokuma will do. And Tenko would never forgive herself if she just let something like that happen because she was too afraid.”

“You’re not afraid,” Kaede says. “You’re just…” she glances between Tenko and Hoshi’s equally somber faces. “We’re all just trying to deal with what’s happened.”

“Maybe,” Tenko says. “But Tenko… also needs to deal with what’s happening right now. And right now her friends are in danger, so,” she takes a deep breath and strides over to open the door. “Tenko is going.”

Kaede follows a step after her as Tenko reaches for the handle of the door. Her arm jolts with pain, and Kaede finds herself stuttering before her brain can fully catch up to what she’s saying. “A-Ah, wait, um,” both Tenko and Hoshi turn to her, and she quickly finishes with, “Uh, before we go are there any painkillers? My arm is… a little sore, and I’m sure Hoshi-kun would like to have some on hand if he’s gonna be on crutches all day.”

Hoshi frowns at her but nods. “Wouldn’t be the worst idea,” he says. “Leg wasn’t feeling great when I first got up.”

“Okay—but remember not to take too many or rely on them too much,” Tenko says. “Sometimes when you are hurt, it’s important to know when you are in pain so you don’t end up straining yourself too much.”

“Oh, of course,” Kaede agrees hurriedly. “But, um, where are they? Maybe it’d be a good idea to bring some along, just in case.”

Tenko furrows her brow but moves back to easily enough to fish some out of her pile of supplies. She hands a few bottles to Kaede, saying, “Kaede-san, would you mind carrying these in your backpack?”

Kaede glances between the bottles in Tenko’s hands and the monopad still held in her good hand. “Sure,” she says. “Would you mind just holding on to Kiibo-kun, then?”

Tenko nods and they make the trade easily enough, with Tenko seeming to not pick up on the way Kaede grits her teeth when the strap of her backpack grazes against her arm. She approaches Hoshi staring dubiously up at her with a bottle she left out of her bag, saying, “We’ll just take a few of these each and then we can get moving. Sound good to everyone?”

“Don’t think I have a problem with it,” Hoshi says, still watching Kaede cautiously. 

Tenko says as much in agreement, and while Kaede knows the painkillers she just swallowed will take time to kick in, part of her tries to convince herself they’re already working in full as she shoulders the door to Tenko’s room open.

The walk to the school is slow, though the even pace allows Kaede to cradle her arm and purposefully smoothen her steps without much notice as Hoshi’s focus is just on walking and Tenko takes the lead, already clearly on guard for any dangers that might come after her two patients. Her posture is noticeably stiff, and Kaede has to wonder how much of it is simply in preparation for possible attacks or just to steel herself for entering the room where Yumeno’s body was found.

However, the trip while tensely silent is also a peaceful one, and they see no other students on the walk from the dorms to the school. Kaede muses that everyone else likely only cares about the wellbeing of the other member of the walking wounded and hadn’t bothered to wait for the three of them. The thought would be a bitter one if she didn’t feel so disconnected from it.

Tenko pushes open the doors to the school, nearly shoving Shirogane just on the other side to the ground. “Ah!” she says, backing up a few steps. “I was just on my way to come check on you guys. Everyone else is waiting in the cafeteria, and, um, well it was decided that I was plainly the best choice to go see how you were all doing.”

“Was it now,” Hoshi says dully. 

Shirogane wrings her hands as she turns to him. “Uh, I think so?”

Kaede has to resist rolling her eyes at the imagined conversation that likely took place, but decides to spare going over it due to Shirogane looking physically uncomfortable about going over the matter. “So Monokuma hasn’t shown up yet to… explain whatever it was he was yelling about?”

She shakes her head. “No, not yet. We were thinking that maybe he wanted us altogether or at least enough of us since,” she hugs her arm. “If three people are missing… that’s basically half of us now.”

Kaede can’t help but feel her heart sink slightly at the observation as Tenko starts to ask, “So that is all that we need to do—just go in there, listen to Monokuma’s announcement and leave?”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “I think so? But, well, he plainly always kind of likes to do something weird to mess with us or cause trouble, so I don’t really know.”

“We could just not go then,” Hoshi says. “If he won’t give it if we’re not there, then isn’t the best option to just not show up?”

Shirogane frowns. “I don’t know about that. Trying to just ignore the motive before… hasn’t really worked out for us.”

“No,” Kaede sighs. “It hasn’t.” She forces herself to smile as confidently as she can. “I guess we’ll just have to actually work as a team this time and face it head on.”

The words feel so fake as she says them, but none of the others seem to notice with Shirogane saying, “Right—I guess that is all we can do now. Yup,” she nods, seeming to gain some confidence. “The only thing to do is to do it, and… I’m sure it will all plainly work out because,” her smile turns sad, “we… don’t really have any other options, do we?”

“We either listen to Monokuma or we die,” Hoshi sighs. “So, yeah—guess that’s our only choice.”

Tenko still has her jaw clenched as she says again, “We just have to go, hear what he has to say, and then leave and… not do whatever it is he says. Got it,” she nods to herself. “Got it—Tenko understands.”

Kaede frowns. “Are you okay, Tenko-san?”

“Yes,” she says quickly. “Yes—Tenko can… Tenko can do this.”

“Um, well,” Shirogane says. “Everyone else is waiting so we should probably get going. I know Monokuma sounded pretty mad earlier.”

Kaede thinks to herself that there’s also a chance Ouma and Maki might tear Momota in half if they take too long. With nervous eyes still on Tenko’s stiff form, she says, “Alright—you lead the way then.”

Shirogane nods and starts off, followed by Tenko who adds over her shoulder, “Remember to stay close to Tenko in case anything happens.”

Once she turns around again, Kaede exchanges a brief look with Hoshi as they trail after them.

Shirogane offers them all a hesitant but supportive smile as she presses the doors open, and Kaede can see Tenko clenching her hands into fists as she steps through the doorway. Kaede catches the door to hold it up and gestures for Hoshi to go in front of her as she observes the others from over his head.

It’s of little surprise that Momota is sitting between Maki and Ouma at the table, and while he seems to be smiling, Kaede thinks she can see something similar to her own forced cheer in his expression. And with that in mind, to her, he appears to be somewhat cooled down from the day before but still exhausted. 

“Hey, Chabashira,” he says. “You coming to eat with us today, too?”

Tenko stays close to the doors even as Shirogane settles back at the table and Hoshi shuffles around her to reach one of the chairs. “No,” she says tightly. “Tenko just wanted to stay with Kaede-san and Hoshi-san. That’s all.”

To Kaede’s surprise, Maki quirks an eyebrow, saying, “Is that so?”

Something in Tenko’s gaze changes, and Kaede suddenly becomes very aware that she has no idea what unspoken thought is passing between them. Momota comes to their rescue, adding, “Just looking after your patients, right Chabashira? Maybe you’re actually the Ultimate Nurse or something.”

Some of the tension seems to fall away as Tenko shifts to address him. “No—Tenko does not have nearly enough medical training for that. And even if she did, she is still having trouble getting one awful boy to actually let her attend to his injuries.”

Momota laughs, holding up his hands in defeat. “Got it—got it. But, seriously, Chabashira—everyone—you don’t have to waste time worrying about me. You guys should be directing that energy somewhere else—like figuring out how to get us the hell out of here.”

Maki’s eyes flick to him. “Why are you talking about it like that? It’s not an either or situation.”

“Look,” he shakes his head. “All I’m fucking saying is just,” he gestures vaguely as if trying to summon some coherent argument. “There’s no reason to focus on me, alright? It isn’t gonna get us anywhere.”

“Ah, well,” Shirogane says. “I guess that is kind of true. If someone is hurt, helping them is important, but we’re just treating the symptoms and not… curing the disease, I guess?”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “That does… sort of make sense. We’ve just been running on band aid solutions because that’s all we have.”

The others go quiet, and Kaede’s half expecting Monokuma to show up to try and startle them out of silence when she hears Momota say, “Hey, Ouma, you got really quiet all of a sudden. Something wrong?”

“Hmm?” Ouma says, glancing up at him. “Oh me? No, I,” he leans back in his chair and sighs dramatically. “I was just busy getting lost in your eyes—that’s all.”

Momota rolls his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I know you’re capable of being serious, so could you do that for like five fucking seconds?”

“Not right now,” he says easily, folding his hands behind his head. “Especially since everyone’s getting all mopey for no reason.”

Hoshi looks at him from across the table, his eyes hooded by his hat. “There are seven of us left, and we might be the last survivors of humanity. Don’t think that’s a reason to feel like shit?”

Ouma hums. “Well, if you’re gonna look at it from that angle, sure, then you might throw yourself a pity party or two. Personally, though, I think I’d rather get mad then cry—I’m waaaay more fun when I’m angry, you know.”

“Is any of that supposed to mean anything?” Maki asks, narrowing her eyes. “Or are you just complaining that we’re not being interesting enough for your game?”

Ouma simply tilts his head, and Kaede sees Momota open his mouth to say something back to her when Monokuma decides to take that as his cue to suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere.

“Well, well, well, you brats sure took your time—reminds me of a few tragically deceased kids of mine. But, oh well, nobody really cares about stale comic relief like them,” he says casually. “Everyone knows you kids are the real stars here.”

Kaede frowns. “Why are you talking about it like that? Who is ‘everyone?’”

“It,” Shirogane says, nervously wringing her hands. “It has to be us, right? If we’re plainly the only ones left then ‘everyone’ is us. So… we know we’re the stars?”

“The fuck does that mean?” Momota asks.

“Who knows!” Monokuma says. “And personally I am not in the mood for interruptions right now.” His gaze darkens as he brandishes one of his paws. “I know the secret of the outside world can be kind of a buzzkill, but that’s no reason to run around trying to break my game like a certain smartass here.”

Ouma leans over Momota to stage whisper to Maki, “Harukawa-chan, he’s talking about you.”

Maki rolls her eyes. “So what—you’re going to punish us because Ouma destroyed something?”

“But if you didn’t want him to do that,” Hoshi says, “couldn’t you have just told him to knock it off before?”

“No,” Kaede says. “Because,” she gives Ouma a sideways look as she says. “Because without the Exisals, Monokuma can’t enforce his rules, which means we’re free to—”

“Bzzzt!” Monokuma says. “Wrong, wrong, wrongy wrong! What kind of game master would I be if I couldn’t have my rules?”

Ouma shifts to lean forward, propping his chin up with one bored hand as if he were about to say something, but—to Kaede’s surprise—he remains silent, simply watching Monokuma through half lidded eyes. Beside him, Momota speaks instead, saying, “None of us fucking gave a damn about your shitty rules in the first place—the fact that we don’t have to follow them anymore just means—”

“Also wrong!” Monokuma says. “And, see, it’s attitudes like that that really grind my gears, you know? But I guess I just have to accept that some people in life are just ungrateful no matter what you do for them.”

Momota scowls as he moves to his feet, slamming both his hands on the table. “Would you shut your fucking mouth—”

“What does that mean?” Tenko asks suddenly. “Why do you keep saying we’re wrong about there not being any rules? You don’t have the Exisals anymore so…” she seems to suddenly become aware of everyone’s eyes on her, and her voice softens as she continues. “So Tenko doesn’t understand. You can’t just threaten us anymore, and the word is gone so all we have is each other… and Tenko wants to believe that none of her friends—no one in the world—would try to keep killing and hurting each other when that’s all we have left.”

Kaede gently reaches out to touch her arm comfortingly. “Tenko-san…”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “You can’t do anything to us anymore, and no one would want to escape into such a horrible world, so the killing game has to be over now, right?”

Monokuma observes them for a moment before bringing both his paws up to his mouth. “Puhuhuhu… those sure were some touching words and some wonderfully delicious false hope, but I personally have always thought a joke is at its funniest when someone believes in it with all their heart.”

“A joke,” Kaede says. “A joke—what,” she distantly begins to hear her voice rise in volume, almost as if she wasn’t in control of it at all. “What about this is a _fucking_ joke!? You’re going to make us suffer more!? You’re going to try and make us hurt each other because you enjoy toying with us!? You—”

“The new motive,” Monokuma says. “Is a bit of a rehash, I’ll admit, but I also have to admit I sorta put all my eggs in one despairful basket with handing you kids a chance to learn the secret of the outside world—my bad on that one, guys. So I hope you’ll all find it in your hearts to forgive me, and won’t think your second time limit is too boring.”

Kaede feels the anger that had been controlling her body vanish in an instant, leaving her feeling nothing but hollow at his words. “The… the what?”

Hoshi closes his eyes. “Another time limit—and guess we can assume you’ll kill us all at the end of it if there isn’t a murder.”

“Yup, yup,” he says. “Despairfully predictable, I know, but I think it’s important to put a little more fear back in you, you know? Since, after all, I might not have the Exisals anymore, but I still have my old trump card of making an entire army of me after, oh,” he hums to himself as he takes a moment to look over their faces. “I’m feeling generous all of a sudden. Instead of two days this time, you guys get three days! Just to mix things up a little. But after that, everyone forced into the killing game will face my wrath! Or a clone of me’s wrath. Or a clone of a clone of me’s wrath. Depends how many spares I go through between then and now.”

Kaede can do little as the absolute horror she had felt so long ago surges through her. Her stomach twists in knots, and she feels something vile and sick rising in her throat, and she shifts her weight onto Tenko, knowing her legs might just give out from under her at any moment. But, still, through it all, one shining piece of his speech stands out to her.

She remembers standing in the dusty library, talking to Saihara, who had brought his hand to his chin and said, “‘everyone forced into the killing game.’ Why did he phrase it like that? Doesn’t it seem like a loophole or something to his rules?”

And now despite the sharp, sour sickness rising over her, Kaede echoes, “Everyone forced into the killing game…”

Distantly, she hears a slight sound of someone shifting at the table as if suddenly perking up in attention, though she pays it little heed. Through gritted teeth, Momota says, “Shut up! Like hell are you gonna—”

“‘Like hell?’” Monokuma says. “Well, I suppose some would say we’re in hell, but personally I just think we’re in my world. And in Monokuma’s world—”

“I told you to shut up!” Momota yells, slamming his hands against the table again. “It doesn’t matter what you do to us—none of us are going to play your fucking games anymore!”

Monokuma simply raises a paw. “Then you can all die together. Continue the game or give me the pleasure of slaughtering you all now—and I have to admit, I don’t really care either way.”

Shirogane holds her head in her hands. “Why is this happening again? W-We promise we won’t use the Exisals again if you—”

“Negotiating with him is pointless,” Maki says. “He wouldn’t be inflicting a motive like this on us again if it was possible.”

“Right you are,” Monokuma says. “Well, I think that just about does it for me. You kids have fun and make sure to bring me a corpse in three days! Or else _I’ll_ get to have some fun! Puhuhuhu!”

With his last laugh at their horror, Monokuma fades away as strangely as he had appeared leaving the room deathly quiet in his wake.

Kaede isn’t sure if the feeling overwhelming her makes her want to faint, vomit, or possibly both. It’s all she can do in the moment to briefly take in the variety of expressions on the other’s faces as their current situation sinks in. Tenko mostly seems concerned about her while Hoshi stares at the ground with half lidded eyes, and Shirogane sits in the chair next to him, simply cradling her head as if doing so could protect her from the motive. 

Maki and Ouma both appear relatively calm with their twin blank expressions as Momota finally breaks the spell over them by awkwardly stepping away from the table altogether to stand in the center of the group. “Alright,” he says. “So—this means one thing and one fucking thing only. We are fucking fighting back.”

“We are?” Shirogane asks meekly. “I mean, I want to if I could, but doesn’t it seem plainly impossible?”

“The impossible is possible if you make it so,” Ouma says rather dully, absently tracing patterns on the tabletop with one pale finger. “Isn’t that something you’d say, Momota-chan?”

“We don’t need motivational speeches,” Hoshi says without looking up. “Positive words and good feelings aren’t about to keep us alive when the time limit ends.”

“Which is why,” Momota says, “We need to work together and think of a plan. There’s absolutely no way in hell we’re just gonna sit on our asses and ignore this—I’d die before I let what happened last time happen again.”

Without any emotion in her voice, Maki says, “Last time, Akamatsu killed Amami.” Her cold words snap Kaede to attention as she continues. “To stop history from repeating itse—”

“I’m never going to let anything like that happen again,” Kaede hisses. 

“Then what are you going to do?” Maki asks.

“I’m going to,” Kaede clenches and unclenches her hands, the slight movement shooting an almost clarifying pain up her arm. “I’m going to think of something with everyone and stop this.”

“Stop what?” Ouma asks suddenly. “Stop the time limit? Or stop someone from committing murder?”

She waves her good hand vaguely. “Both, obviously.”

“Last time,” Tenko says quietly. “Our only plan was to try and fight back, but we never got that far into the strategy meeting because Amami-san wandered off.”

Momota lets out a deep sigh. “But this time’ll be different. We’re gonna fucking learn from our mistakes and figure something out.”

“So,” Hoshi says, finally looking up. “Any suggestions then? Know we have the Exisals, but,” he glances over the others. “Trying to run isn’t gonna do much good, is it? There’s no air outside of the dome even if we do manage to find a way to escape.”

Maki casually brushes her hair over her shoulder, almost nonchalant as she adds, “Attempting to fight head on would be suicide. An initial confrontation might not end with any of us dead, but we’re in a situation where our opponent is observing everything we say and do. Surprising or tricking them would be impossible.”

“Well,” Kaede says. “Surprising Monokuma isn’t the only way to—”

“And between the seven of us,” Maki says. “Chabashira is weak from starving herself, Momota can’t run, Hoshi can’t walk, and Akamatsu can’t use one of her arms. And I doubt Ouma or Shirogane have ever handled a serious weapon in their lives.” She briefly lets her gaze move over each of them. “You’re all blatant liabilities in a best case scenario.”

“I’m not a fucking liability,” Momota says. “Because I don’t care—I’m gonna go down fighting, and that’s—”

“No one is—!” Tenko shouts before suddenly becoming aware of her outburst. “No one is… ‘going down’ doing anything because,” she shakes her head. “If the plan is for someone to sacrifice themselves fighting Monokuma, then Tenko wants nothing to do with it.”

Momota sighs, running a hand through his hair as he turns to her. “I’m not saying we should all plan to just charge in and fucking die but just that we have to do something.”

“We do,” Tenko says. “But… but if our only options are to die horribly fighting against Monokuma or—or just choose one of our friends to kill, then Tenko would rather we just let the time limit expire.”

“But,” Shirogane says. “But if we did that, we’d all die anyway.”

“Everyone forced into the killing game would die,” Ouma says.

Kaede’s head snaps to look at him, and he simply tilts his head at her in return. She keeps watching him, furrowing her brow, as Maki says, “Choosing someone to die is the most pragmatic option. Of course, it’s just a stall since there’s nothing stopping Monokuma from just enforcing another time limit on us afterwards.”

“Until there are two,” Hoshi says. “That’s the only way this game ends.”

“Only if we don’t do something right fucking now,” Momota insists. “C’mon guys—what the hell is wrong with you? We have no other choices here. We work together and we fight back—I’m telling you, that’s the only possibility there is.”

“Or,” Ouma says, only breaking eye contact with Kaede to spare Momota a glance. “We could do Chabashira-chan’s plan and let time expire and see what happens.”

“‘S-See what happens!?” Shirogane stammers. “W-We all die! That’s what Monokuma said plainly happens!”

Momota gives him an odd look. “What are you…” he trails off, shaking his head as if trying to clear away whatever about Ouma’s words was bothering him. “Anyway—Monokuma thinks this’ll work because one of us will try and betray us or take matters into their own hands or some shit. The only way we win this is if we work together and believe in each other.”

Maki sighs, and Kaede sees something she would think was almost pained if it wasn’t in Maki’s expression. “Believing in each other is impossible because right now, the mastermind is in this room.” The others fall quiet as she continues. “We can’t make plans as a group because one of us is going to betray us or do something to sabotage it or whatever needs to happen to make sure we fail.” She shakes her head. “Those are just the facts.”

“I know,” Momota says. “I know, and I still say we fight.” He presses his fists together. “I don’t care what happens or what the odds are—I’m gonna do whatever it fucking takes to protect you guys, alright?”

“So,” Ouma says, happily swinging his legs back and forth under the table. “What will it take then? C’mon—what’s the plan, commander Momota-chan?”

Momota frowns as his gaze slides back to him. “Well, let’s think about what we got. And,” he turns to Maki. “I know we’re being watched and shit, but all that means is that, you know, it’s just gotta be a really fucking good plan.”

Maki rolls her eyes, but doesn’t seem entirely upset at the sentiment.

“Speaking of being watched,” Hoshi says, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket. “Harukawa brought this up earlier, and, have to admit I haven’t seen much of a reason to explain since the fact that Monokuma’s monitoring us somehow is obvious, but,” he sighs. “While back, Gonta and I figured out how it was happening… and the mastermind obviously didn’t like that.”

“Hoshi-san,” Tenko says softly.

Kaede sends her a brief sympathetic look before turning back to Hoshi. “That’s why the mastermind tried to target the two of you in the past cases… because they wanted to keep it secret, but with their rules, they couldn’t do anything about it outright without getting punished.”

“That’s what I figured,” Hoshi says. “Also these days Chabashira’s been watching me like a hawk—doubt anyone could come near me if they wanted.”

Tenko frowns. “Tenko has been—”

“I know,” he says, looking up at her. “And I’m grateful—I really am.”

Tenko stares hard at him for a moment before saying, “Fine—Hoshi-san, if you tell us now when everyone is present, the mastermind cannot do anything. So…” she looks to the others for quick reassurance. “How are we being watched?”

Hoshi fiddles with his cigarette for a moment, seeming to contemplate how to phrase his next words. “Gonta,” he says after a few seconds. “His vision was… ridiculous—he noticed these things buzzing around that none of us could see and assumed they were bugs, but,” he sighs. “He was too slow to catch them until I offered to help. We didn’t even know what the hell we were doing when we started, but he’d point out where one of them was, and I’d use my flash stepping to try and catch it. And we got a few.”

“Bugs?” Kaede says. “I… remember you guys—wait. That one night, when Tenko-san and I were walking back to the dorms and we saw you guys—were you catching them then?”

“That’s right,” Hoshi says. “And once I got a hold of a few, Gonta was able to get a better look.” He shakes his head. “Course it was still hell to try and see them, so we asked Iruma to borrow a microscope from her lab. Long story short… it wasn’t insect-bugs he was seeing, but, rather, this whole place is bugged. There’re tiny cameras just… recording us all the time, everywhere.”

Shirogane pales, bringing her hands to her chest. “Is that… is that really true?”

“Couldn’t make up such a weird story if I wanted,” Hoshi replies.

“And none of us can see these things,” Momota says. “So it doesn’t matter where the hell we go—Monokuma’s always watching.”

“Well,” Maki says with a sigh. “While I suppose it’s vaguely interesting to know the method, we already knew we were being monitored. Monokuma always knows the tricks to every case and who the culprit is, so there was already no question that we were under constant surveillance everywhere.”

Hoshi shrugs. “That’s why I never thought it was necessary to share, and it’s not like we can suddenly stop it now that we know what it is.”

Kaede tugs on the brim of her hat. “I… think that might be true, but I have a question, Hoshi-kun. You said these were cameras—so does that mean there’s some place where all this footage is going to?”

“Has to be,” he says. “But hell if I know where it is.”

Ouma hums. “Maybe the mastermind has a secret lair somewhere.”

Kaede again narrows her eyes, staring at him searchingly. Tenko says softly, “We already know that, too, that’s where,” her hands clench into fists and her eyes remain fixed on the pristine tabletop of the long dining room table. “That’s where Yumeno-san was killed when she tried to fight back.”

Momota starts to say, “Chabashira—”

Tenko spins on her wheel, hair whipping behind her. “Tenko needs some air,” she says quickly. “J-Just shout if you need her, and…” she trails off and doesn’t bother to finish her final thought before leaving the room.

Kaede stares after her worriedly, only turning back around when she hears Ouma say, “She’s right,” a few moments after the doors swing shut. “Yumeno-chan tried to do something and she got killed for her troubles. The mastermind is just so rude, aren’t they?”

Maki glares at him. “You’re talking as if you had nothing to do with that.”

He folds his hands behind his head nonchalantly. “I just gave her the supplies and plan, Harumaki-chan. But I was never at the scene of the crime.”

“But you know what ‘the scene of the crime’ is,” she says. “You and Akamatsu both do and you’ve been hiding it from us for some godforsaken rea—”

“Ouma,” Momota says. “You said ‘supplies.’ Is that… shit that can cause a blackout like the one Yumeno made? Do you have more crap like that?”

Ouma hums. “Ooh, maybe.”

“He does,” Kaede says. “Iruma-san made these… EMP grenades, and Yumeno-san used one of them earlier, but there should still be two more. And there were also these hammer things that I think could do the same thing, though I don’t know how many of those she ended up making.”

“Geeze, give away all my secrets,” Ouma says. 

Momota nods. “Okay—okay. So we gotta the shit Iruma made, which can take out machines and her remote to control the Exisals.”

“When you say it like that,” Hoshi says. “Almost starting to sound like there’s a chance we might be able to do something.”

“So we can use that stuff to try and defeat Monokuma,” Shirogane says. “But… where would we go after that? There’s still no place for us to go… and even if we get rid of Monokuma,” she hugs herself. “The mastermind is still going to be hiding among us, and that’s just assuming they don’t try to do anything to sabotage us. And if we fail to do this by the time limit…”

“A lot of shit can go wrong,” Momota says. “Yeah—but it’s still our only option.”

Maki sighs as she finally stands. “Maybe we do have weapons or know where the mastermind’s hideout is, but Shirogane’s right. We’re also facing an enemy where we have no idea what their capabilities are—not to mention that Monokuma could just kill us all early if he decides we’re breaking the rules.” She shoots a glare to Momota. “And you’re still injured—if you try to get into a fight, you’ll die.”

“Harukawa,” he says. “Stop worrying about me, and just,” he shakes his head before a smile somehow finds its way on to his. “Believe in me maybe? I believe in you and everyone else here.”

“The mastermi—”

“I know,” Momota says. “I know they’re probably right in front of my fucking face and laughing to themselves, but I don’t give a shit. Because I believe in you guys, and right now the only thing we can do is just believe in each other and not let Monokuma trick us anymore.”

Maki furrows her brow. “‘Trick us?’” she echoes. “Why do you say that?”

He waves a hand vaguely. “Every motive has been a fucking trick to try and get someone to do crap. That’s just what Monokuma does—he gets in your head and tries to trick you into doing something you think is right when it really just fucks everything up.”

Maki keeps staring at him intently, while Ouma says, “How astute of you, Momota-chan,” before laughing. “Maybe all that beauty sleep is actually making you smarter instead.”

Momota frowns. “Was that supposed to be a fucking compliment?”

“Of course,” Ouma says, hoping to his feet. “Would I ever insult my beloved Momota-chan?” He skips over to him. “But, I have to say that as much as I believe in my dearest Momota-chan, I just think that right now I trust no one and nothing!”

Momota balks. “The hell does that mean?”

“It means we’ve been talking about how the mastermind will totally stab us in the back the first chance they get, buuuut they’re not the only one who might betray us.” He shoots a beaming smile to Kaede. “After all, sometimes motives make people do crazy things, you know.”

“I already told you,” Momota says. “I’m not about to let that happen. I decided that I’m gonna protect you, and nothing’s gonna fucking make me go back on that.”

“Aww, my hero,” Ouma says. “Buuut I think I’m gonna take matters into my own hands, so don’t you worry your pretty little head about me, okay?”

Kaede says, “Wha—you’re not even going to try to work with everyone?”

“Is anyone surprised?” Maki asks coldly.

Ouma clicks his tongue. “Haven’t I already told you? Cooperation in this game is impossible, and trying to work together will only make us suffer. And since I love you all so much, I want to prevent that.”

“So,” Shirogane says nervously. “What are you going to do then?”

“Beats me!” he says. “I like to make up plans as I go along—that’s just my style. Or maybe that was a lie—guess we’ll see!”

Momota just sighs. “Alright, fine, run around and do your own thing—I don’t fucking care—but we’re fighting so,” he holds out his hand towards Ouma. “At least give us the fucking remote for the Exisals so we stand a damn chance.”

Maki suddenly jerks her head to him. “Ouma still has the remote?”

“Uh,” Momota rubs the back of his head. “Yeah—but, don’t worry about it, Harumaki.”

Ouma juts out his lower lip. “But it’s mine, and I’ve already named the Exisals, too…”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says sharply. “This isn’t a joke, and we also quite literally do not have time for your games right now.”

“Who said it was a joke?” Ouma says, titling his head. “In my opinion, jokes have to be funny.”

Momota sighs again. “Ouma, I’m fucking asking nicely here, either promise you’ll work with us or give me the remote.”

Hoshi pulls down his hat. “Sure that’ll go well…”

“Why are we even bothering with asking?” Maki says. 

“Because we believe in each other, and we’re gonna fucking work together or die trying,” Momota says, near exasperated. “That’s why, alright?”

Maki frowns. “Why are you so intent on this? Why can’t you just…” Kaede sees her hands twitching at her sides as if trying to grasp her own frustration. 

“Harumaki…” he says.

“Okay!” Ouma cheers suddenly. “How about this? You guys do Momota-chan’s totally a great idea and not a murder-suicide pact plan, and I’ll do my own plan to protect everyone.”

“And that plan is?” Hoshi asks.

Ouma presses a finger to his lips. “Secret.”

“So you’re not gonna give us the remote?” Kaede asks.

He hums. “I’ll think about giving the remote to someone tomorrow based on how thing’s go. How about that?”

“Uh,” Shirogane says. “What ‘things?’ What are you going to do?”

“Me?” Ouma says. “Oh you know, I just think I’m gonna go end the killing game. But anyway! I’ll see you guys tomorrow… if no one’s betrayed you by then, that is.”

With that he moves to push the doors open, only exclaiming, “Hi, Chabashira-chan!” as he nearly runs straight into Tenko on the other side before dashing around her.

Tenko looks quickly between him and the tensely silent room. “What was…”

“Nothing,” Momota says. “This just,” he runs a hand through is hair. “This is just gonna be a lot fucking harder than it needs to be.”

“Okay,” Tenko says warily. “But, if everyone is done with the meeting, Tenko would like to escort Kaede-san and Hoshi-san back to their rooms.”

“Escort?” Maki says dubiously.

Hoshi slowly clamors with his crutches to his feet. “Yeah,” he says. “Might trip and fall and break my other leg.”

Kaede sends a glance to Momota. “Are we… done talking about this?”

He sighs. “Guess we fucking are.”

“Right,” she says. “I guess we’ll all… try and prepare today and meet again tomorrow.”

Momota nods weakly, and Kaede wonders if he’s been forcing the bravado and cheer in his words as much as she has. She gives him a sympathetic smile before following Hoshi still moving slowly on his crutches out the door. Just before the doors swing closed, she sees Maki stepping closer to Momota and hears just the beginnings of what she assumes is going to be a hushed argument. Shirogane simply fits in her chair, fidgeting awkwardly as she seems to accept her place as being treated like furniture.

In the hall, Tenko lets out a sigh of relief. “Sorry, Tenko left you alone—she just…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hoshi says. “Obviously we both lived.”

Tenko’s mouth pulls into a tight line. “Don’t say that, especially considering…” she looks to Kaede. “What did Momota-san say we were going to do?”

“He’s insisting we try and fight,” Kaede answers. “But I think almost everyone has their own ideas.”

“So much for working together and believing in each other,” Hoshi says. “Doesn’t help that we’re in that—what was that thing Amami mentioned—prisoner’s dilemma. Working together seems great, yeah, but at the end of the day, it's in everyone's best interest to just betray us all…”

Tenko bites her lip. “Hoshi-san, Kaede-san, just… stay with Tenko, okay? She’ll protect you if anything happens.”

“Sure,” Hoshi says with a shrug before beginning his slow walk down the hall. “Not like I can get far on my own anyhow.”

Tenko frowns as she begins to follow him, Kaede at her side. “Tenko-san,” Kaede says. “Are you… do you really think just letting the time limit expire is the best idea?”

“No,” Tenko says. “But… Tenko doesn’t want anyone to die or try to sacrifice themselves, or,” she shakes her head. “Tenko just… doesn’t want to live on the backs of her friends’ deaths.”

Kaede can’t think of anyway to respond to that other than to just nod. “Right,” she says. “Um, right…”

It’s only when they’re back at the entrance of the school that Kaede dares speak again. “Hey, Tenko-san,” she says suddenly, startling both her and Hoshi. “There’s something I need to go do, but I promise I’ll see you later, okay?”

Tenko freezes. “You’re… just going off on your own? Kaede-san—”

“I know, I know,” she says. “It sounds like an awful idea given what’s going on, but there’s something I need to do.”

Tenko’s jaw tightens, and she spares a glance towards Hoshi standing a few feet away from them, absently chewing on one of his cigarettes and giving them the courtesy of pretending not to be aware of their conversation. She takes a step closer to Kaede and lowers her voice. “Kaede-san,” she says. “Tenko doesn’t want to make you panic or worry you, but… you need to be really careful, okay? Um,” she briefly looks around to double check that they are alone. “Harukawa-san is really desperate to try and end the killing game. Tenko knows that Momota-san made her promise not to do anything, but, with the time limit…” she shakes her head. “Tenko doesn’t know.”

Kaede feels a slight rush of dread but simply nods at her information. “I… I see. So you think Harukawa-san might…”

“Tenko thinks she’s willing to do a lot if she thinks it will protect Momota-san,” Tenko says. “She doesn’t think Harukawa-san will let him fight or do anything that might put him in danger and… if the time limit gets close to its end…”

Kaede takes in a shaky breath. “You think she might try and sabotage things to keep him safe?”

“Tenko doesn’t know about that, but, just,” she reaches forward to squeeze Kaede’s good hand. “Tenko is asking you to please let her protect you, okay?”

“I,” she says. “I promise I will be right back. I just need to find Ouma-kun and ask him something really important—that’s it, I swear.”

Tenko furrows her brow, and glances at Hoshi over her shoulder again. “Can Tenko come with you? She can take Hoshi-san back to the dorms and tell him not to open the door for anyone until we get back, and then we can go together.”

Kaede reaches up to fiddle with her hat and likely takes too long to finally say, “I… think that will be okay. Sure, let’s,” she tries to smile. “Let’s do that.”

Tenko nods, and, mercifully, Hoshi chooses not to ask any question other than sending Kaede a skeptical look as she remains silent while Tenko explains their sudden trip around the school.

Hoshi waves them off once he gets settled back in his own room, telling them not to worry, and the two girls set out on their search around the school. Kaede realizes absently as they begin that she really has no idea where Ouma likes to hang out or where he goes to plan his schemes. 

During their trip, Tenko takes out Kiibo to try and explain their situation. They’re in the middle of searching the gardens when Kaede hears his voice echo out, “Suffice to say this seems… close to a worst case scenario. I… will think about how to proceed given my own abilities.”

Tenko advises him to not overwork himself, and Kaede hears little else of their conversation other than repetition of the conversation in the cafeteria intermixed with Kiibo’s own input about the lack of logic in various strategies. 

Kaede isn’t sure how long they spend searching when Tenko tentatively reminds her that they should likely make sure to check up on Hoshi. Kaede can do little but nod in agreement even as almost every muscle in her body just wants to tear her hair out in frustration.

“Can we just look one more place before we take a break?” Kaede asks. 

Tenko agrees, but Kaede can feel her increasingly worried stares on her back as she slowly leads them down into the library. She stares at where she knows the hidden door is, and startles Tenko when she says aloud, “Saihara-kun said the mastermind would be here when the time limit ended the first time. Our plan was to just… catch them on film, I guess, and prove to everyone who it was. I… I didn’t think just knowing who they were would do much to stop them, so I took matters into my own hands.” She looks over her shoulder at Tenko and forces a self-deprecating smile. “And here we are.”

“You just wanted to save us,” Tenko says. “Maybe things did not work out, but your intentions—”

“No,” Kaede says. “My intentions were to kill, and… as soon as I was ready to do that, I had basically already lost to Monokuma.” She glances to the spot where Amami’s body had been so long ago. “And someone else paid for it. I—Tenko-san,” she looks back to the other girl. “Is killing the mastermind really going to end this?”

“Tenko doesn’t know,” she says softly. “But… she also doesn’t want to kill them. She just,” she shakes her head. “She just wants this to be over without anyone else dying for us or trying to be a hero or… whatever else will get them killed.”

“Is that why you suggested just letting the time limit expire?” Kaede asks.

Tenko nods. “Tenko knows that everyone probably doesn’t agree, but after what’s happened to everyone who tried to escape or fight back—maybe it would just be better if we all died together instead of just accepting that people we love are going to slowly be killed in front of us. And Tenko is,” she presses the heels of her palms to her eyes. “Tenko is so tired of watching her friends get hurt and hurt each other… I’m so tired—so just… Kaede-san, Tenko knows how you feel about this, but please don’t do anything reckless.”

Kaede thinks for a moment. Then, “Hey, earlier you said you thought that Harukawa-san would probably do something to stop Kaito from fighting if she thought it would keep him safe. Would you do the same for me?”

Tenko bites her lip. “Tenko… doesn’t know. But she probably would.” She looks to the ground. “Sorry, Kaede-san.”

“No,” Kaede says, trying to put a smile back on her face. “I get it—you just really care about me. And,” she reaches to squeeze Tenko’s arm. “I appreciate that—I really do.”

Tenko smiles back, and Kaede only spares the door to the mastermind’s lair one last look before eventually relenting and letting them leave.

Even after a break, the second search for Ouma is perhaps even more lackluster, and Kaede feels something close to panic when she realizes the sky of the dome is beginning to darken to signal night. 

It’s only when Tenko tugs lightly on Kaede’s sleeve and gently calls her name does Kaede agree that their search attempt has been a complete failure and needs to come to an end.

In the dorms, Kaede goes with Tenko briefly to her room to change the dressings on her arm and pretends she doesn’t notice the deep concern on Tenko’s face as she inspects her injury. The new bandages feel stiff and uncomfortable, but Kaede doesn’t complain, instead opting to say, “I think I’ll be okay to sleep in my own room tonight,” as they walk back into the hall.

Tenko frowns but nods. “Are you sure? Tenko is fine sleeping on the couch to make sure—”

“You need your rest, too,” Kaede says. “And I promise I’ll be okay. You don’t have to look after me all the time.”

“Kaede-san—”

“I know things are,” she lowers her voice, “probably really dangerous right now, but it’s only going to be one night, okay? I just won’t open my door for anyone until morning,” Kaede says. “I promise that. And you better not either.”

“Tenko won’t,” she says, finally stepping away from her and back towards her own door. “Just… please be safe, Kaede-san.”

“I will,” Kaede says. “Goodnight.”

Being back in her room for the first time in so long almost feels good, and Kaede immediately hates how relieving the familiarity of it is. She sits on her bed for a moment before preparing to sleep, absently thinking about just how long she’s been imprisoned in the school and how that imprisonment might very well come to an abrupt end in what is now roughly two days time. 

Monokuma wishes her goodnight from the monitor, and Kaede stares at her ceiling until sleep finally takes her.

When she wakes up the next morning, it feels as if she had closed her eyes for perhaps a minute at most. Her arm aches painfully, though about a fraction less than the day before, and Kaede’s first movement is to grab for the painkillers in her bag and swallow an amount she knows Tenko would disapprove of.

With the time limit hanging over her head, everyone movement feels slower as if she can physically see the seconds her every action is consuming. But, still, Kaede slings her backpack over her shoulders and places her worn out hat on her head before making her way to her door to embrace whatever new horror is likely waiting on the other side.

However, as she takes the last step towards her door, Kaede hears a slight crunch of paper under her foot. Her head immediately snaps down to see what appears to be a folded piece of paper laying on the ground as if it were slipped under her door.

Kaede doesn’t waste a seconds as she hurries to pick it up, unfolding the now slightly crumpled paper to see rather messy, childish looking handwriting that reads: 

_Meet me in the machinery bay at noon. Come alone._

_P.S. Bring lots of food!!!_

She furrows her brow, reading the fairly simple message over again, unsure what to possibly make of it. 

Kaede jumps when her doorbell rings, and she hears Tenko’s voice call from the other side, “Kaede-san? Are you there?”

“Y-Yes!” she answers hurriedly, and, in a split second decision, she shoves the letter in her backpack before opening the door with her most plastered on smile yet. “Sorry I was just… trying to collect myself a little, I suppose.”

Tenko smiles sympathetically. “Of course. Um, Tenko thinks Hoshi-san would probably appreciate if you could stop by his room to give him some medicine, but then… Tenko doesn’t really know what we’ll do today.”

Kaede nods as she steps past the other girl and out into the hall. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” she says. “You know—I think Kaito was right. All we need to do is work together and believe in each other, and,” she thinks she can almost feel the letter burning in her bag. “And something will come up. I just… I just know it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the very long wait on this one, but hopefully I should be back to a regular updating schedule! Also chapter 5s tend to be motiveless, so I thought this would be a good time to get to play around with the one canon motive I wasn't able to, haha, and hopefully I justified it enough in story, though of course, you are the judge of that! 
> 
> And also another quick note looking forward is that if everything goes right, my goal is going to be to finish this fic on April 1st since that's the day I published the first chapter. So hopefully I make that date!


	30. Daily Life XIII

Tenko does most of the talking when they greet Hoshi at his door as Kaede’s mind races over the letter. The morning announcement plays, signaling that she has four hours to make a decision, and she can feel it ticking away as Tenko again insists on the three of them walking to the school as a group. 

Shirogane greets them on their way and chatters inanely, providing Kaede some much appreciated cover to allow herself to silently mull over the letter. It’s not too hard to guess who wrote it—the three people around her show no signs of anything seeming different with them other than perhaps being a touch more on edge due to the time limit. She’s also doubtful that Momota would choose to send a secret message over just coming to her in person, and she’s even more doubtful that Maki would be its sender almost on principle alone. The idea that Maki’s handwriting is childish enough to match the letter is an amusing one, but Kaede doesn’t dwell on it long.

But, ultimately, Kaede realizes that knowing who sent it does little to answer any of her questions about how to proceed. She had spent almost all of the previous day looking for Ouma, and now here he was openly offering a meeting, and—though perhaps it was a bit of blind faith of the weirdest kind—she was fairly certain he had no intentions of killing her outright. It could still very well be a trap, and the last part of the message seemed to indicate to her that Ouma intended for someone to be stuck somewhere away from the cafeteria for a rather long time. 

However, Kaede’s biggest question still is not whether to go, but if sneaking off on her own would even be possible. Their walk to the school has the façade of calm, but Kaede doesn’t miss any of the alertness in Tenko’s movements even as she makes idle conversation with Shirogane. 

She’s still in silent debate with herself when they reach the cafeteria, and Tenko again takes a moment outside its doors to center herself and ball her hands into tightly clenched fists. Kaede follows inside after her, and ends up stopping in her tracks almost right outside the door at the sight before her.

Six of the strange hammer things that Iruma had showed her so long ago are laid out on the table, and Ouma stands to the side of them one arm held out to seemingly present them with a flourish.

“Everyone’s finally here!” he says. “Geeze, took you slowpokes long enough.”

“The hell are these?” Hoshi says.

Momota picks one up to inspect the sleek handle. “Ouma said they were called, uh, Electrohammers?” he says, turning to Ouma for confirmation. “Apparently Iruma made them.”

“Akamatsu already knows,” Maki says. “She mentioned them yesterday.”

Though she says it calmly, Kaede can’t help but feel herself tense at Maki’s words. “I did,” she says tightly. “And Ouma-kun has—”

“Decided to give you all a present,” Ouma finishes. “I still have my own plans, but I figured it’d be boring if you guys just sat around did nothing all day, you know? So I wanted to help you out a little.”

“Oh, um,” Shirogane says. “Is that true?”

Momota says, “Who gives a shit if it’s true? Ouma—how do these things work?”

Ouma skips over to him and begins to explain the basics—hit something with it to deactivate any electronics, it runs out of battery quickly and needs twenty-four hours to recharge. From her firmly rooted spot at the door, Tenko says, “Are there only six of them?”

“Hmm?” Ouma tilts his head. “Did you say something?”

Tenko scowls but continues. “Iruma-san made these, but when she was alive… there were nine of us. So… why would she only make six of them?”

Momota turns to him. “Ouma,” he says. “Chabashira right?”

Ouma hums for a moment before crossing his arms behind his head. “Aw, you got me.”

“Sound really torn up about it,” Hoshi says, rolling his eyes.

Ouma sighs dramatically. “Well, I knew there was no way I could get away with lying to you guys,” he says. “Yeah, you figured me out—there might be a few extras lying around somewhere.”

Maki narrows her eyes. “You say that like you don’t know exactly where they are.”

Ouma gasps. “Harukawa-chan, are you accusing me of lying? After I helped you guys out of the goodness of my heart?”

“So, um,” Shirogane says. “I guess Ouma-kun’s planning something…”

“And that plan involves hoarding electrohammers somewhere?” Kaede asks.

Ouma blinks up at her. “Yes,” he says. “Somewhere.”

Any of Kaede’s lingering doubts that Ouma sent the letter evaporate, and Momota starts to speak over their silent conversation. “Okay, so maybe there are extras, but who gives a shit? We’ve got six of these here, and there’re six of us.” He readies the hammer in his hand as if going to battle. “I say we take these and fucking bust open the door to the mastermind’s lair right now.”

“And then what?” Maki asks. “We fight them with our weapons that only work on machines?”

Momota shrugs. “Maybe we could crack open the lock on your lab or something and grab some shit from there.”

“We could,” Hoshi says. “But if we hand out weapons, aren’t we just arming the mastermind, too?”

“And then we’d just have to fight them and whatever weapons Monokuma has,” Shirogane says. “Ugh, and Monokuma’s plainly going to be really angry at us for breaking the rules.”

Momota sighs. “Guys, we’ve fucking been over this. Yeah, a lot of shit might go wrong, but we don’t have any other choices besides fighting back. I know you’re probably all freaked out, and I get that so,” he smiles brightly at the others. “I’ll take responsibility for whatever happens. Promise.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “What does that mean?”

“It means if shit does go wrong, then it’s on me,” he answers. “I’ll take the blame for whatever if we fail, and if we don’t get our shit together by the time limit then,” he takes a moment and to Kaede’s horror, he still manages to say his next words as upbeat and positively as the rest of his speech. “Then I’ll kill myself, and you guys can carry on my will and get the hell out of here.”

“You’ll what?” Tenko says very softly.

Kaede starts to turn to her, when Maki snaps, “Have you—you,” Kaede looks back to see the other girl practically shaking with rage. “Have you lost your _fucking_ mind!?”

Momota seems taken aback. “Harumaki? What’s the matte—”

“You just said you’re going to commit suicide—what the hell do you think is the matter?” she says, voice now deadly quiet. “After everything—why are you so willing to just sacrifice yourself?”

“Harumaki,” he says, voice serious. “You’re acting like this is something I want to do, and it’s not—it’s just…” he runs a hand through his hair. “Maybe… I don’t have quite as much time left as I’ve been saying, alright? And like I said before, if I’m gonna die, I’m gonna do it fighting against Monokuma and protecting you guys.”

“And you think we want to be protected like that?” Maki says. “You think we’re just supposed to accept this and just—just swallow the fact that you’ll kill yourself and move on like nothing happened?”

Momota shakes his head. “I’m not expecting you to… I’m just, hey, Harumaki, weren’t you saying that we need to be fucking realistic or something? So yeah, it fucking sucks, but yesterday when I was trying to get you guys to do anything about the time limit crap, no one wanted to do shit other than point out holes in my plan, so I thought of a backup one. And that’s all it is, okay?”

Maki narrows her eyes. “All of your plans result in your death. You do realize that, right?”

“The hell are you—”

“Our options are to fight Monokuma and the mastermind and whatever stockpile of unknown weapons they have with a plan they’re going to be prepared for—the people who are weak or injured likely won’t make it out alive,” Maki begins. “Or we just let the time limit expire and all die doing nothing… or you decide to sacrifice yourself. No matter what we do, you’re going to die.”

Momota goes silent for a moment as he places the electrohammer back on the table with a soft click of the metal against the table’s surface. It’s a small noise, but it echoes in the dead quiet of the room. He takes an uncomfortably long moment to form an answer to Maki’s accusation, running a hand through his hair while her hands tighten into fists. “Yeah,” he says finally. “Yeah, I probably am.”

Ouma says very quietly, “That’s all you have to say?”

Momota glances back at him and seems to realize everyone else in the room other than him and Maki at once. “I’m,” his bravado collapses all at once with a defeated shrug of his shoulders. “I’m sorry, guys. I don’t know what the hell else you want from me.”

“I want you to stop letting yourself be tricked by Monokuma,” Maki says. 

Momota doesn’t seem angry as much as just confused when he asks, “How am I being tricked?”

Maki lets her glare falter to the ground, then. “You said that when Monokuma convinces you to kill, you’ve lost, but isn’t choosing to let yourself die in a killing game… isn’t that what he wants, too?”

“Harumaki,” he says. “You know that’s not why I’d do anything—I already fucking learned my lesson. So it’d be,” he shakes his head. “On my own terms—I don’t know.”

Maki looks back up at him, her cold face twisted with an emotion other than anger for perhaps the first time Kaede has ever seen. “Fine then,” she says. “If you won’t think of another way to end this killing game, then I will.”

Momota calls after her again as she storms out of the room with a fierce determination in her movements. Momota runs a hand over his face. “Fuck,” he says. “Uh, Chabashira—can you take care of the electrohammers? Just put them somewhere safe or some shit? I gotta…”

Tenko nods. “Tenko understands.”

He nods back at her, and exits the room at a slight jog even as Kaede notices him wince as he begins his first steps at a brisk pace. 

With him gone, Tenko clears her throat. “Tenko will… take these to her room to guard,” she announces, taking a few obviously pained steps towards the table. “Um, she might also need someone to help her carry them.”

Kaede suddenly perks up at her words. “Ah, well, Shirogane-san would make the most sense, right? I mean, Hoshi-kun and I… we’re not in the greatest shape to carry things.”

“And I’m unreliable,” Ouma adds brightly.

“Is that really something to be happy about?” Shirogane says. “But, well, I suppose I could help if you want Chabashira-san. I’ll admit I… don’t really have any other plans.”

“Guarding in groups of at least three would make the most sense, too,” Hoshi adds. “Just in case we end up including someone… not on our side in that group.”

Tenko grimaces as looks over the electrohammers laid out on the table. “Tenko, Hoshi-san, and Kaede-san will guard them then.”

“Uh,” Kaede says. “Actually, Shirogane-san, you just volunteered to help carry them down to Tenko-san’s room, right? Wouldn’t it make the most sense for you to be on guard duty?”

Shirogane furrows her brow. “Well, I guess? I mean, I wouldn’t mind doing it.”

“Kaede-san?” Tenko says. “Is something—”

“I just,” she spares a glance to Ouma who unhelpfully beams back at her. “I spent all of yesterday looking for Ouma-kun, so I’d kind of like to talk to him before he runs away again.”

“I am prone to doing that,” he says conversationally.

Kaede sighs, fiddling with the brim of her hat. “So we’ll just talk for a minute, and then I’ll meet you guys back at the dorms, okay?”

“You need to have a conversation alone?” Hoshi asks, not bothering to hide his suspicions. 

“Don’t worry,” Ouma says. “If Akamatsu-chan tries to kill me, I’m prepared to fight back and scream for help!”

Kaede rolls her eyes before looking back to Tenko staring worriedly at her. “I promise it will be really fast—there’s just something I want to double check with him about the Exisals. And if we take too long, you can come down to the machinery bay to tell us to hurry up, alright?”

Tenko frowns. “Kaede-san… you really want to go off on your own right now, don’t you? Even with…”

“I do,” Kaede says. 

“She won’t be alone,” Ouma says. “Because Akamatsu-chan and I are the best of friends now.”

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Not to stir things up, but,” she glances between the two of them. “Don’t you two plainly hate each other?”

Ouma waves his hand. “Pish-posh, Shirogane-chan, you’re such a slowpoke. I got bored of hating Akamatsu-chan a long time ago, and Akamatsu-chan loves and trusts everyone including moi.”

Kaede pinches the bridge of her nose. “Ouma-kun, you’re not helping.” She sighs and walks over to Tenko. “I promise I’ll be okay.” She looks back at the others before lowering her voice. “Ouma-kun’s probably scared of Harukawa-san, too. I think that’s why he was hiding yesterday. Even if he’s not the most trustworthy person, we’re on the same side here.”

Tenko glances behind Kaede briefly, biting her lip. “Kaede-san,” her eyes move to the surface of the table, and Kaede knows exactly what she’s thinking. “Just… no matter what, please don’t do anything risky, okay? Even if you think it’ll save us or stop the killing game, please think of your safety first.”

Kaede nods. “I will,” she says before moving to pull Tenko into a quick hug. “And thank you.”

Tenko returns her hug, careful not to squeeze the shoulder of her injured arm before pulling away. Kaede smiles at her encouragingly, repeating, “I promise I’ll be okay,” as she tries her best to pretend she doesn’t see the obvious pain in Tenko’s eyes. 

“Ready to go on our super secret adventure now, Akamatsu-chan?” Ouma asks.

Kaede winces at his choice of words. “Yeah,” she says. “Let’s—”

“Wait!” Ouma says suddenly, hurrying into the kitchen. “Help me carry food!”

Kaede ignores the looks of obvious confusion on the others’ faces as she hurries after him with an apologetic smile directed to the others.

Inside the kitchen, she idly moves without instruction to pull food from various shelves, though still baffled as to why. After a few moments, she hears the tell tale sounds of foot steps and Hoshi’s crutches beginning to move and, eventually, the door swinging shut behind them. 

She waits a few more moments to hear their steps carry down the hall before turning to Ouma. “Ouma-kun, the others left, so we can just talk here, can’t—”

“Nope,” he answers, pulling away from the counter, balancing as much food as his skinny arms can carry. “To the machinery bay.”

He moves past her, only calling out, “C’mon, we gotta get this show on the road, Akamatsu-chan.”

His choice of words does little to ease her worries, but Kaede still follows after him, carrying a few items of her own. “Can’t we talk on the way at least, then?”

Ouma hums, and his only response is to glance at her and scoff. “That’s all you’re bringing?”

“I don’t even know what all this is for,” Kaede says. “Are you what, just camping out in the machinery bay?”

“Something like that,” he answers vaguely. 

Kaede sighs again, though becomes pointedly aware from Ouma’s need to walk a few paces ahead of her that he isn’t going to be answering any more questions until they reach their destination.

She feels a bit guilty as they pass by the dorms but keeps her pace behind Ouma on their trek across the school. When they finally reach the machinery bay, Ouma keeps walking without slowing down or offering a word of explanation as he moves through the twisting halls to the Exisal hanger at the far end. Kaede follows quietly, and while she is still fairly certain Ouma won’t do anything, she can’t help but feel a touch tense at being alone with someone else in a remote part of the school faraway from everyone else.

The gate to the hanger stands closed with its barrier back up and shining blandly at them. Ouma shifts the stuff in his hands in an attempt to reach for something in his pocket while he juts his chin at the gate. “Akamatsu-chan, you’re carrying less stuff—open it…” he shifts a bit more, finally producing a familiar looking remote. “Now.”

He presses a button, and with it, the barrier falls. Kaede frowns as she approaches the gate. “How much stuff do you have?” 

“You’ll see,” he answers. 

Kaede rolls her eyes again as she pulls the gate up easily enough with her good hand and it moves up towards the ceiling. She immediately jerks back to see the entrance completely blocked by the two working Exisals. “Ouma-kun, what are—”

“One second,” he says, and Kaede hears him shuffling his items around again. “Just gotta grab… remote number two…”

Kaede waits for a few tense seconds before Ouma fishes it out of his pocket and awkwardly navigates the Exisals away from the door with one hand. He moves past her as if nothing had just occured and walks inside the hanger to deposit his pile of what Kaede now notices is assorted junk food on the ground. “C’mon, Akamatsu-chan,” he says. “You’re such a slowpoke.”

Kaede pauses, briefly wondering just what she’s getting herself into as she steps inside the hanger. Those wonderings turn to a quick jolt of fear when she notices Ouma moving back to the control panel to lower the gate and turn the barrier back on. “Ouma-kun,” she says. “What are you—”

“Closing us off,” he says. “In a mastermind, Monokuma, and Harukawa-chan free zone. Unless Harukawa-chan is the mastermind, then it’s just a Monokuma and mastermind free zone.”

Kaede frowns as she looks around at the piles of stuff on the floor. Other than food, she notices what appears to be a sleeping bag, a few notebooks with pages coming out of them, and the missing electrohammers and EMP grenades clumped together inelegantly. “You… have been camping out down here,” she observes.

“Nope, not yet,” Ouma says, skipping back towards her. “Planning to tonight, though.”

“Is your room not safe?” Kaede asks. 

He hums. “My room is fine—it’s just the rest of the school that’s dangerous. There’re murders out there, you know?”

Kaede crosses her arms and lets herself simply study him for a moment as Ouma opts to simply sit on the ground and start flipping through a notebook. “Alright,” she says. “Enough games—why did you call me here?”

Ouma huffs. “I already told you—mastermind and murderer free,” he smiles up at her. “Unless you stab me in the back that is.”

“That didn’t answer my question,” Kaede says. 

“It answers the point of your question,” Ouma says. “But really the truth is that I actually just wanted to meet secretly so I could kill you and escape.”

Kaede merely raises her eyebrows. “An answer that isn’t a lie, please.”

Ouma laughs. “Well, since you said please, I guess I can let you in on a few things.” He sets his notebook aside and pats the ground in front of him. “Take a seat, Akamatsu-chan. It’s a long story, and I really like the melodious sound of my own voice.”

Kaede frowns but sits, awkwardly folding her legs under her on the cold metal ground. “If you try to lie, I’m leaving,” she warns.

“Ah, but Akamatsu-chan, lying is my way of life,” he says. “Buuut I guess I’ll only stick to nice lies to make you happy. Which reminds me, I just wanted to tell you how strong you’ve seemed lately—I bet you could fight off a bull with one hand.”

She doesn’t miss the way he nods to the bandage still wrapped around her arm. “I’m hurt,” she says. “I know. Now can we move on to something less obvious?”

“Sure!” Ouma says happily. “Let’s see, let’s see, where to start… Oh! I know—so I’ve been thinking about the motive, and I’ve decided it’s a lie.”

Kaede physically feels her jaw drop open. “It’s—it’s—what?” she sputters. “You—you just decided what?”

“How to explain,” he muses aloud. “How to explain to someone very, very slow…”

“Ouma-kun.”

“Okay,” Ouma says. “Think back to Saihara-chan’s trial—you remember that right? He took the fall for you, tricked everyone into thinking you didn’t murder Amami-chan, blahblah blah—anyway, right before Saihara-chan was about to be executed, do you remember what happened?”

Kaede scowls. “Do you really expect me to answer that?” Ouma simply grins at her and she lets out a labored sigh. “Fine. I… failed to protect him and he said it was better to just let him be punished. That it was,” she grimaces as she repeats the word he said so long ago, “the best possible outcome.”

Ouma hums. “Close enough to the right answer, so partial credit. But a better answer is that Momota-chan, Chabashira-chan, and Gonta also offered to help you fight against Monokuma to protect him, right? And that’s when I realized why Monokuma was okay with letting Saihara-chan take the fall.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “What?”

He rolls his eyes. “Monokuma threatened a five way execution, but it was a bluff. Sure, he’d probably punish one person if they tried to do something, but there was no way he’d just let five participants die so early. ‘Cause then we’d be down to ten and that means he’d miss out on two super exciting trials.”

“So… Monokuma wants alive,” Kaede says slowly. “I mean, I realized that if he just wanted us dead, he could have killed us with the Exisals at the very beginning, but…”

“But that would have been boring,” Ouma says. “He let us get away with voting wrong because if we all die at the first trial, his game ends when it had just barely begun. Monokuma is strict about his rules, but if it means keeping the game interesting, he’ll bend them. The game being exciting always comes first, and a game where everyone dies immediately is the opposite of exciting.”

“Wait,” Kaede says, something from that day suddenly standing out to her very vividly. “After the trial, Monokuma came to my room and he said, uh,” she frowns, trying to call his words, “he said, ‘it’s a pain when the first killer gets away with it’ or something.”

Ouma seems genuinely interested as he says, “Well, that about confirms all my theories. Shame he told that to you instead of me, but I guess I wasn’t threatening to upend the whole game back then. My mistake.”

“A-Anyway,” Kaede stammers, now very invested in their conversation. “You said that Monokuma let us vote wrong because everyone dying at the beginning would be boring. Would… everyone just dying at the end also be boring?”

Ouma smiles. “A plus plus, Akamatsu-chan. Of course, I have to give credit where credit is due. You helped me realize that—what was it—‘everyone forced into the killing game.’ Quite the phrase, isn’t it?”

Kaede suddenly feels the excitement she had felt flood out of her. “Yeah. Saihara-kun pointed that out to me… which is why we tried to trap the mastermind.”

“Then credit to Saihara-chan,” he says. “My mistake.”

Kaede sighs. “Anyway… what was your point? Saihara-kun pointed that out because it implies—”

“That one of us wasn’t forced into the killing game,” Ouma says. “I know. But I also know that there’s no way Monokuma’s about to let his super exciting killing game actually end with us all just sitting in the dining hall until we die from a time limit. Sooo,” he hums leaning back slightly. “I put two and two together and came up with something horrible. And I’ll tell you if you pinky promise to keep it secret—one non-mastermind to another.”

Kaede grimaces. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means consider this,” Ouma says brightly. “Monokuma is safe with bluffing because he left himself a loophole to get out of actually killing us and ending the game on a boring note. Ta da! Mystery solved.”

“The loophole is that… those forced into the game die,” Kaede says, thinking hard. “And you’re saying Monokuma wouldn’t have to kill any of us with that loophole? Wha—what?” She shakes her head. “Are you saying we _weren’t_ forced into the killing game!?”

“Sheesh, calm down, Akamatsu-chan,” he says. “We won’t get anywhere if you get all emotional on me.”

“You just implied that we all volunteered to kill each other in some sick game!” Kaede says. “Why—why the hell would you lie about something like that?”

The smile suddenly drops off his face. “I guess it is more appealing to think it’s a lie.”

“It’s not about what’s ‘appealing,’” Kaede says. “It’s about—there is just absolutely no way anyone would volunteer for a killing game! And,” she throws her hands in the air, the gesture only sending a brief spike of pain up her arm. “I don’t remember agreeing to being trapped here.”

Ouma regards her for a moment. Then, “what if we haven’t remembered that yet?”

“Huh?”

“We both know Monokuma can play with our memories whenever he likes,” Ouma says. “So maybe we forgot.”

“No, just—how can you say something like that so calmly?” Kaede asks, fighting against her own anger to keep the volume of her voice down.

He shrugs. “Why does the truth make you so mad? I gave you a solution based on facts, but it’s not happy, so you throw a fit and tell me I must be lying.” He hums to himself. “Sounds like you might have a fear of the truth, Akamatsu-chan.”

She clenches her jaw. “Why are you so eager to accept something so horrible? Are you that proud that you managed to figure something out that you don’t even care what it is? And,” she points an accusatory finger at him. “After Angie-san’s trial, you told me you didn’t want my help, so why the hell am I even here?”

Ouma pauses again before physically turning away from her to rummage through his stuff. Kaede’s about to snap at him for ignoring her when he says, “If I didn’t need your help, I never would have called you here—so don’t flatter yourself. But, well, see, I said all of that before I had to dodge four attempts on my life and realized I had to put a few walls of steel between myself and attempt number five.”

“So,” Kaede says, tugging on her hat as she analyzes the situation before her. “You’re scared of dying now?”

“No,” he says nonchalantly. “I’ve accepted the fact that I might have to use my life to end the killing game for a while now. What I don’t want is to die as a boring loser who accomplished nothing. And,” he pulls a different notebook from his pile and turns back to her. “You have some information I want.”

Kaede frowns, crossing her arms. “And there’s something I need to ask you.”

Ouma grins again. “Tradesies?”

She pinches the bridge of her nose. “As long as we’re not calling it that, sure. Anyway,” she straightens her hat. “I have a real plan to end the killing game, but I need your help or at least the remote for the Exisals.”

“No can do,” he says, casually flipping through the pages on his notebook. “Exisals are defense number one against Harumaki-chans. So anyway—”

“Just listen for five seconds,” Kaede says. “Kaito was talking earlier about just charging the mastermind’s hideout, and… I know that didn’t work out when Yumeno-san did it, even though she had one of those,” she gestures vaguely at the remaining two next to him, “thingies. But, I think we both know she threw it at the central hub of the school—it’s like this weird Monokuma head thing—and if we use the Exisals to just destroy it altogether,” she lets out a deep breath. “We might actually be able to end the game.”

Ouma’s eyes flicker over her before he says, “Describe the Monokuma head thing.”

“Well,” Kaede says, trying to conjure the incredibly strange though now distant memory. “It called itself… the Motherkuma or something? And apparently it makes new Monokumas when the mastermind tells it to,” she winces in embarrassment, “to b-birth a new Monokuma. But anyway, you can reach it through the passage in the girl’s bathroom, and I think it might also be the center of the school.”

He continues scribbling on his notepad, and without looking up, he asks, “How do you know that? The part about the system it uses to make new Monokumas.”

Kaede feels a similar weight to when they were discussing Saihara fall over her. “I… found it by chance with Iruma-san, and she… she figured it out. The entire thing was weird though. Like,” she furrows her brow. “It wasn’t angry that we were in the mastermind’s lair as much as it was… annoyed we were there early?”

Ouma looks up at her over the top of his notepad. “Did it say that?”

“It said something like,” she tugs at her hat, trying to recall the memory. “We weren’t supposed to be there yet. I thought it was weird at the time, but—”

“The Motherkuma,” Ouma says. “Sounds like an exciting final boss, right? Raiding the mastermind’s lair, finding the source of their power, then fighting the final boss—sounds like an exciting ending for a game, right?”

“So,” Kaede says. “You think we’re supposed to go there… later? As some sort of grand finale?”

Ouma sets down his notebook. “The final survivors, standing together against despair, rallied forward by the tragic deaths of their friends, taking down the big bad in a final epic action sequence—or maybe another trial knowing Monokuma? Sounds like a hell of an ending to me.”

“But that implies… that we’re supposed to win against Monokuma,” Kaede says incredulously.

“And you assumed we weren’t,” Ouma says. “Which is a silly thing to assume since, well, you were there at the first trial, Akamatsu-chan.”

She glares at him. “Anyway, now that you know my plan, are you going to help me or not? I’ll tell you whatever it is you want to know.”

“You already did,” Ouma says. “See, that was the goal of my plan with Yumeno-chan to try and figure out what was in the mastermind’s lair and maybe get some pictures, but we both know that was a total failure. But now you told me because I asked nicely, so I guess Yumeno-chan’s death really was meaningless.”

Kaede bites back her first reaction to snap at him and instead says, “You don’t really believe that. Or if you do, you feel horrible about—”

“So to sum up, I learned what I wanted to know, and I’m not going to help you with your dumb plan that won’t work,” he says brightly.

She scowls. “And destroying the thing that’s the center of the school and makes new Monokumas won’t work because?”

“Because you haven’t been paying attention to a word I said if you really think this game ends with the mastermind and Monokuma,” Ouma says. 

“It,” Kaede blinks at him. “What?”

He sighs as he examines his fingernails. “C’mon, I know you got a brain somewhere in there, Akamatsu-chan. Think about it—the advanced machinery, the ability to change memories at will, the intricate rules and the need to adhere to them. Do you really think this is all the will of one person?”

“I… I don’t know, but,” she shakes her head. “If it’s not, then how do we end the killing game?”

“That,” Ouma gestures to the notebook, “is what I’ve been trying to figure out since day one, Akamatsu-chan.”

“No,” she says. “No, that can’t be true—this all sounds like some crazed conspiracy.”

“And I left all my tinfoil hats back in my room,” Ouma says. “Real shame.”

Kaede just stares at him before letting out a sigh. “Okay, fine, but if it is all this huge conspiracy, and my plan won’t work, then what are you planning to do?”

“Right now,” he says, leaning back on his sleeping bag. “I’m planning to survive. Which means waiting out the time limit in my metal fortress with my robot bodyguards.”

“So you really are going to just hide out here, and,” her eyes fall over the piles of notes practically bursting out of their bindings. She tugs her hat down. “Try to think of a way to end the killing game all by yourself…”

“You got it. And you,” he points at Kaede without bothering to sit up, “should go tell Chabashira-chan you’re still alive before she comes down here and sets off the shutter’s alarm. Actually, we’ve been talking for a while, and given how long it would take to get Hoshi-chan settled, maybe check on his injuries, find Momota-chan and tell him where the electrohammers are, I predict Chabashira-chan will be here to set off the alarm any second now.”

Kaede just raises her eyebrows. “You can’t possibly have estimated a time for all of that.”

“But, see, when you say that, Akamatsu-chan, what you’re failing to take into consideration is the fact that I’m a genius,” he says matter-of-factly.

She rolls her eyes, and is about to respond when the alarm begins blaring loudly from outside, and she hears Tenko’s voice yelp in surprise. Ouma looks far too pleased with himself, and Kaede says over the screeching alarm, “this doesn’t mean anything.”

He keeps grinning as he takes his time to grab the hanger’s remote to silence the siren before cupping one hand around his mouth to yell out, “Chabashira-chan! Walk around to the window!”

“Window?” Kaede repeats, shuffling to her feet. 

“In the bathroom,” Ouma replies jerking his chin towards a door in the back as he stands as well. 

He starts to lead the way, and Kaede hurries after him, asking, “You’re coming to talk, too?”

“Of course,” he answers, pressing a finger to his lips as he pushes the door open with his other hand. “I have to make sure you’re not gonna secretly plot against me, oooor spill all of my super important secrets.”

She stares after him as he skips over to the room’s sole window and rises onto his tiptoes in order to barely peek out of the window that Kaede can’t help but note is more than a touch too tall for him. She walks a step closer and sees Tenko’s face peeking through on the other side. At her movement, Tenko immediately perks up to shout, “Kaede-san!” over whatever greeting Ouma’s giving.

She calls again, “Kaede-san, are you okay?” as Kaede walks closer.

Ouma puffs out his cheeks, saying, “Rude,” as he backs away from the window to give Kaede room.

“Tenko-san,” Kaede says, peering through the window. “I’m alright—sorry, we ended up having a lot more to talk about than I thought.”

“And you’re okay?” Tenko asks again despite Kaede’s earlier answer. “No one’s hurt?”

“No,” Kaede says with a shake of her head. “Actually, with the force field over the shutter and the Exisals, this might be the safest place in the school.”

She hears Ouma shuffle up to next to her before he says, “And that’s all thanks to who?”

Kaede rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I’m fine. How’s everything on your end?”

“Okay,” Tenko says nervously. “Shirogane-san and Hoshi-san are guarding the electrohammers in Tenko’s room, and Tenko talked to Momota-san about Harukawa-san, and he said, well,” she frowns, “he said he believed in her and they made a promise, so everything will be fine.”

“Aw, Chabashira-chan,” Ouma coos. “It sounds like you don’t trust Momota-chan’s judgment, do you?”

Tenko scowls as she shifts, trying to spy Ouma out of the corner of the window. “It’s not that—though Tenko supposes an awful boy like you wouldn’t understand.”

“Well, I am the worst,” Ouma says.

“Tenko just,” she continues. “She just really, really wants everyone to be safe, and she has a really bad feeling about what might happen when the time limit gets closer.”

Kaede thinks for a moment, weighing her words, before she says, “Staying safe is the most important thing right now. Staying safe, so we can get through the time limit, and live another day to end the killing game.”

Tenko nods. “That’s what Tenko thinks, too.”

“So,” Kaede says, letting out a deep breath. “I think I’m going to stay here.”

She spies the briefly perplexed look on Ouma’s face out of the corner of her eye as Tenko says, “What? Kaede-san—”

“I know I said I would be right back and stay with the others,” Kaede says. “But after what Ouma-kun and I discussed, I think it’s more important that I stay here.”

“Huh?” Ouma says. “Akamastsu-chan, did you forget? We already finished our talk.”

“We finished the first part where we compared notes,” she says. “Now we need to move on to the part where we,” she takes a moment to force herself to smile encouragingly. “Where we think about what we do next—after the time limit’s over.”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “Are you saying you’re just going to… lock yourself away from everyone else?”

“Just until the time limit’s over,” she says quickly. “And then when everyone’s calmed down, and we hopefully have a better plan, we’ll come out and rejoin everyone else.”

Ouma adds, “Stop saying ‘we.’”

“And,” Kaede adds, “Tenko-san, you already have Hoshi-kun to take care of, and Kiibo-kun, and probably Kaito, too, in case he… actually tries anything when we get to the end of the time limit.”

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko knows that, but that doesn’t mean she can’t protect you, too.”

“I know, and I do trust you,” Kaede says. “But I also want to stop sitting around feeling useless and making you worry about me all the time. I want to help and maybe actually try doing something a leader would again.”

Tenko’s eyes fall to the ground as she just says, “Kaede-san…”

“Also,” Kaede says, preparing to lie. “I’m really scared. I do believe in you, but… I think you’re right about Harukawa-san, and the more walls of steel I have between me and an attempt on my life, the better.”

She doesn’t miss the look Ouma gives her for a second even as she refuses to glance down at him. Tenko says, “Tenko, ah…” she bites her lip, fidgeting in place for a moment before saying, “Are you sure you’re safe in there? No secret entrances or ways someone could break in?”

“The electrohammers would probably take out the barrier in front of the shutter,” Ouma says. “Buuut that’s why I have the Exisals standing guard over it.”

“See?” Kaede says. “We’ll be—”

“But, most importantly,” Ouma continues. “I don’t want Akamatsu-chan to stay. So,” he turns to her and waves his hand dismissively. “Shoo, shoo.”

Tenko looks between them as best she can. “Kaede-san, Ouma-san’s not… holding you hostage or—”

“The opposite of holding someone hostage, actually,” Ouma says before repeating, “shoo, shoo,” again.

Kaede rolls her eyes. “Also,” she says to Tenko. “I’m sort of in the middle of fighting an uphill battle to try and get Ouma-kun to cooperate with us.”

Tenko seems to show distaste at the idea, curling her upper lip. “Kaede-san, Tenko trusts your judgment, but…”

“I know,” Kaede says. “But there’s a reason.”

“If that reason is that you’re madly in love with me,” Ouma says. “Then I need you to know Akamatsu-chan that I would have less than zero interest in you even if we weren’t trapped in a killing game.”

Kaede glares down at him. “I’m trying to work with you because I know you’re not the mastermind.”

Tenko blinks at her. “You know for sure that Ouma-san’s not…”

“I do,” Kaede says. “And he knows it can’t be me either, and I think that’s why he invited me here in the first place because whether he likes it or not,” she sends a pointed look to Ouma, “I’m the only person he can trust, and we’re too desperate to not work together anymore.”

“You know you’re both not, uh,” Tenko glances to the ground for a moment before looking back at Kaede, something different in her eyes. “Then… do you know who killed Yumeno-san.”

Kaede feels her chest suddenly tighten up in sympathy. “Ah, no,” she says. “But, like I said, we’re going to keep talking through things and try to find out who did. And I promise we won’t stop until we figure it out.”

Tenko nods, and says mostly to herself, “That’s good… ah, but,” she looks up again at Kaede. “Will you really be okay down here? Remember, Tenko said that you don’t need to do anything to put yourself in danger for our sa—”

“I know,” Kaede says. “And I think this is the best thing I can do to keep everyone safe, including myself.”

There’s that same sadness in Tenko’s expression that makes Kaede’s heart hurt as she lowers her voice to just above a whisper. “Also… Tenko knows you trust Ouma-san, but please be careful… doing anything he says, okay?”

“I will,” Kaede says. “And I promise this will be over really soon.”

“Okay,” Tenko says softly. “Tenko will guard the electrohammers to make sure no one can get in, and she’ll come by tomorrow to check on you—just… please don’t die.”

Kaede feels the strain on her fake smile nearly break it, and she doesn’t think for a second that Tenko will believe any of her optimism even as she says, “I won’t.”

Tenko nods to herself again. “Okay,” she says. “Okay… um, should Tenko tell the others what’s going on?”

Ouma finally speaks up, startling Kaede at his presence. “They’ll figure it out eventually. I mean, the others are dumb, but they’re not _that_ dumb. Well, most of them.”

With his words, Kaede suddenly feels immensely grateful that he opted to stay silent while she was reassuring Tenko. “I think,” Kaede says. “That it’s probably alright. Shirogane-san and Hoshi-kun will probably figure it out since they were there when we left together. And I don’t think Kaito… or Harukawa-san would appreciate being left out of the loop.”

“Geeze, tell everyone about my secret hideout,” Ouma says. “Oh, well, it doesn’t really matter since the mastermind already knows anyway.”

“Ah, Tenko supposes that is right,” she says. “And… Tenko will try to do what she can on her end, too.”

“Right,” Kaede says. “And make sure you’re safe, too.”

She gives her a slightly broken smile, and Kaede knows that the goodbyes they exchange are probably going against every instinct in Tenko’s head as she finally steps away from the window and out of sight.

Kaede lets out a sigh and pulls at her hat, wondering immediately if she made the right choice when Ouma says, “So, Akamatsu-chan, now that you’ve invited yourself here for the next few days, I think you should know I’m not giving up my sleeping bag, and you’re going to have to sleep on the floor.”

Kaede presses the heels of her palms to her eyes as Ouma continues to rattle off about which of parts of their food supply strictly belong to him as well as a list of other odd, idiosyncrasies that she’s sure he’s making up on the spot. After letting him go on for a while, Kaede simply sighs before saying, “Alright, fine—I get it. Now can we actually work on getting out of here?”

Ouma skips away from her saying, “sure, but only if you can keep up, Akamatsu-chan!”

Rather than launching into any sort of discussion, when Kaede sits back down in front of Ouma, he opts to hand her one of his many notebooks with the only instructions being to “try and catch up.” 

She can’t help but scowl at the obvious barb against her intelligence but finds what she can make out of his various scribblings to be more absorbing than she would have first thought. For the most part, they make little conversation other than Kaede occasionally asking him to clarify something he wrote down or him asking her for seemingly random information about their lives at the school.

Even with her new focus, Kaede also finds part of her needs the constant internal reminder that the time limit is just a bluff in order to keep herself calm. She remembers during the first time limit, the sheer urge to do anything had been so consuming that she had started arranging her murder plot before her brain could even catch up with her. She takes a deep breath as she keeps reading and promises herself that this time will be different. 

Ouma occasionally checks his monopad for the time and casually announces dinner when he tosses a bag of rather cheap looking potato chips at her. The only other interruption in what Kaede begins to think of as their studying session comes about an hour after that in the form of a loud banging noise like someone slamming their hand against metal coming from the bathroom. 

They both jolt at the sound, and Kaede notices Ouma reaching for the Exisal remote she knows is in his pocket when Momota’s voice calls out, “Hey! Ouma, Kaede! You guys in there?”

Kaede lets out a sigh of relief—though she isn’t quite sure over what—as she stands, calling back, “Yeah—we’ll be right there.”

She walks to the bathroom and notices Ouma seems to stay behind, fussing with something. But she pays him little mind and hurries to the bathroom to see Momota already peering through the window. “Kaede!” he says as she draws closer. “So you guys are just… what, holing up in here?”

Kaede smiles in greeting even as she smells the undeniable traces of blood on his breath and notices how much paler he looks. “Yeah,” she says. “Just until the time limit ends, though. Which I guess also means… I think you’re gonna have to count me out of your plan to go fight Monokuma.”

He sighs, “Kinda figured when Chabashira told me what the deal was. Still, though, even if it’s just me, I’m not gonna just sit on my ass waiting for Monokuma to come to us.”

Kaede hears soft mumbling behind him that she distinctly makes out as saying, “you’re so reckless…”

“Uh, Kaito,” Kaede says. “Are you alone?”

Momota blinks and takes the least inconspicuous step forward Kaede could possibly imagine to block out whatever she could make out behind him even more so. “Yeah, uh,” he says. “Just me. Anyway, what are you guys doing in there?”

Kaede furrows her brow, considering how to interpret his incredibly bad lying more than how much to reveal to him. “Well,” she says. “Mostly we’re just trying to figure out how to stop the mastermind.”

“Really?” he says. “Do you have a plan for how to beat them before the time limit?”

“Uh, not quite,” Kaede says with a slight wince. “How about you and Harukawa-san?”

Momota frowns. “I told you it was just me here.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” Kaede counters.

She hears a sigh of deep exasperation from the other side as Momota says, “But, nah, right now we’re mostly just… tossing some ideas around. We have tomorrow and then the morning after, so we’re running out, but there’s still some time left. And,” his voice shifts from the forced casual one he had been putting on to something deeply serious, “I know neither of you trust Harumaki, but she’s not just this… mindless killer you think she is, alright? And she wants this game over with as many of us alive just as much as anyone else.”

Kaede waits a second to respond in an attempt to see if she can catch Maki saying anything else, but the other girl remains frustratingly silent. “I’m sorry, Kaito,” Kaede eventually says. “I just… I don’t believe in her as much as you do.”

“I know,” Momota says with a sigh. “But, she promised me she wouldn’t kill anyone, and I believe in her. So yeah, I know you don’t feel the same way, but you can at least trust in her a little.” Kaede gives him a dubious look that she takes he did not like as he finishes with, “You can treat her like a person and not a monster.”

Perhaps it’s Tenko’s warning or the fact that some, small part of her is resentful over having to barricade herself for her own protection, but Kaede finds herself saying, “However she acts, that’s how I’ll treat her.”

“Kaede,” Momota sighs. “You know, if you convince yourself that someone’s a piece of shit, then that’s all you’re gonna see, and you’re probably gonna miss the person they actually are.”

Kaede hears Maki shifting slightly behind him, and can only briefly wonder why she’s fidgeting when a much louder call of, “Ooh, ooh, is that Momota-chan? I want to talk to him!” echoes behind her.

She glances back to see Ouma bouncing on his heels and rolls her eyes before returning to look at Momota. “I know we were in the middle of something, but do you mind talking to Ouma-kun for a bit?”

He shrugs. “Sure. According to Chabashira, this whole thing was his idea in the first place, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “I mean, I kind of decided to force my way into it actually, and—Ouma-kun, would you stop shoving me?” She interrupts herself to address Ouma currently pushing impatiently at her side. With a frustrated sigh, Kaede steps away from the window saying, “Fine, fine—I already said I was going to give you a turn, geeze.”

Ouma ignores her entirely to hop into place. He stands on his tiptoes and grips the opening of the window to slightly pull himself up in order to barely peek out on to the other side as he had done the first time Kaede saw him using the window. She hides her smile behind one hand at the rather amusing image as he says, “Hi, Momota-chan. Welcome to my secret hideout.”

Kaede hears Momota let out what sounds like the most genuine laugh she has heard in a long time, and looks over to see him smiling down at Ouma, saying, “Holy fuck—Ouma, you are so fucking short.”

“Meanie,” Ouma pouts. “Insulting me in my own secret hideout.”

Kaede hears Maki distantly mumble, “not much of a secret…”

“Sooo,” Ouma says. “What can I do for you? Have you come to ask for answers to all of my super sinister secrets?”

“No, not really,” Momota says. “I think Kaede answered most of my questions. And besides, I believe in you, so I trust you know what you’re doing.”

Ouma clicks his tongue. “Terrible choice, really.”

“Dude, Ouma,” Momota says with a laugh. “I’m not gonna buy the whole ‘I’m definitely evil bullshit’ routine when you’ve literally locked yourself away down here because you’re scared.”

Ouma smirks at him. “Oh? Is that why I’m here? Are you sure I’m not planning something devious?”

Momota rolls his eyes. “Yeah, stopping the mastermind and getting us the hell outta here—really fucking devious. Anyway, I know you’re freaked out by what’s happening, but I already told you I’d protect—”

“Geeze, Momota-chan,” Ouma says. “You really don’t know anything, do you? I know you wanna be a hero, but maybe you should try saving someone else.”

“Ouma,” Momota says, face incredulous. “Are you trying to get me to believe that me coming to check on you because you hid yourself away and are too scared to leave this room is all about me and my ego?” 

Ouma sticks his tongue out as he lets himself drop back onto the soles of his feet. “Man, Momota-chan, you got even more boring while I’ve been away. I don’t feel like talking to you anymore—which is such a bummer because I got all excited when you first showed up… I mean, that’s a lie, but, you know, still true.”

Kaede hears Maki mutter to herself, “that doesn’t make any sense,” and, despite herself, she really can’t help but silently agree with the other girl.

Momota says, “Whatever, man. But listen, I get that you’re trying to do everything yourself—and Kaede probably had to strong arm her way in here—but if you need my help for your plan, I’m ready. I get that you don’t really believe in me, and… I can’t blame you, but I believe in you, and I think that’ll be enough until we can get out of here.”

Ouma quirks an eyebrow. “And after that?”

“After that,” he continues. “I’m not gonna rest until I make it up to you, you got that? Hell,” he grins triumphantly. “I’m even gonna get you to let down that mask of yours.”

“Wow,” Ouma says. “You know, I always knew you had your head in the clouds, but you’re actually completely delusional, Momota-chan.”

“And I’m gonna get you to stop saying shit like that,” Momota says before shifting slightly to address Kaede standing back a bit. “Kaede, you’re in charge, right? Make sure Ouma doesn’t do anything stupid, got it?”

Ouma huffs. “You’re saying I need a babysitter? Geeze, first your stupid plan and now this—you’re just full of terrible ideas today!”

Kaede blinks at him as it takes her a second to remember what Momota’s earlier ‘stupid plan’ was, and, as she recalls it, she can’t help but smile wryly as she says, “I’ll do what I can. Oh, and Kaito—make sure you take care of everyone else, too, okay? Including yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he says as Kaede hears Maki begin to fidget again. “I’ll do everything I can. And,” he grows serious again. “Hopefully one of us will find the mastermind soon.”

She nods. “Yeah—good luck, Kaito.”

“Don’t die!” Ouma calls out cheerily.

Momota just shakes his head before saying, “Anyway, see you guys later, alright?” before stepping back and letting what Kaede realizes is a metal cover fall back over the window.

Kaede pauses by the window for a moment more, to catch pieces of the conversation Momota begins with Maki as they walk away, him saying, “They’re really not bad people, Harumaki.”

“I know,” she replies. “That’s not what concerns me. You don’t think anyone here is a bad person.”

“But one of us is,” Momota says back. “I know that, too, and we’ll figure it out together.”

“Just,” Maki says, her soft voice now barely on the edge of Kaede’s hearing as she walks further and further away. “Don’t let your belief trick you. You say it’s your own fault if you get betrayed, but…”

They round a corner and the rest of her words become indistinguishable. Kaede sighs as she finally turns to address Ouma still patiently standing next to her. “You were listening in,” he singsongs. 

“And are you going to tattle on me next time they come down here?” 

“Maaaaybe,” Ouma says. “But Momota-chan’s a dummy who believes in you, so he probably won’t listen.”

“You know,” Kaede says. “You could probably stand to be a little nicer to the one person here who actually likes you.”

Ouma snorts. “Oh, please—and how do you know that’s not a lie?”

With that, he starts to walk off, Kaede frowning as she trails after him. “You think he’s lying about trusting you?”

“I think everyone besides you and me might be lying,” he says, before shooting her a glance over his shoulder. “But then again, we like our lies a lot, too, huh?”

Kaede stops in her tracks and crosses her arms. “Are you saying you think _Kaito_ might be the mastermind?”

“Well, he could be,” Ouma says as he sits back down on his sleeping bag. “Picture this: terminal illness patient wants to be a hero before their death and sets up a killing game where everyone will love them as one last hurrah! What do you think?”

“That’s horrible!”

He hums. “So it is, but what about this—you’re the mastermind, and to throw everyone off your tracks, you befriend one of your victims and then act super heart broken over their untimely death to garner sympathy.”

Kaede stares at him openmouthed. “Tenko-san? She’s your pick for mastermind?”

“No,” Ouma says with a casual shrug. “But that’s how she’d do it. Hoshi-chan’s pretty similar—though with a hardcore case of faking depression thrown in—Shirogane-chan would just be a girl too boring to be the mastermind hiding in ‘plain’ sight, and Harukawa-chan who’s so obviously violent and unstable that you assume she isn’t the mastermind to the point where it’s a twist when she is.”

“You,” Kaede presses a hand to her forehead, trying to think how to process what’s coming out of his mouth. “You are… really _fucking_ paranoid. You suspect everyone?”

“Just everyone who I don’t have proof isn’t the mastermind,” he replies airily. “So to answer your question, no I don’t really trust Momota-chan.”

Kaede just shakes her head. “Because you trust literally no one. How long have you been like this?”

Ouma smiles but there’s something else Kaede can’t quite place shining in his eyes as he says, “That’s what I’d like to know. Here,” he says plucking his remote out of his pocket. “It’s almost night and you can sleep in one of the broken Exisal’s cockpits… unless you love the floor, in which case go crazy.”

“You’re changing the subject,” Kaede says.

“And day is changing into night,” Ouma says jabbing at a few buttons on his remote. “Anything else obvious you want to point out, Akamatsu-chan?”

She scoffs as the green Exisal’s legs slowly bend, lowering it to the ground. “Is that why you act the way you do? You’re just that scared of being betrayed that you’d rather make us all hate you?”

Ouma huffs as he keeps fiddling with his remote. “Where did you and Momota-chan get this dumb idea about me being sacred? Do I look like a frightened little baby to you?”

Kaede stares hard at him as she says, “Ouma-kun, we’ve all accepted that one of our friends is going to betray us, and that it’s going to hurt. That someone’s going to die, or be executed, or—”

“Try to kill you?” Ouma finishes with a beaming smile. “See, Akamatsu-chan, that already happened to me, and I dealt with it, so you’re just kind of full of shit when you try to talk down to me, ‘kay?”

Kaede keeps watching him for another moment, even as the cover to Exisal’s cockpit springs up with another button push on Ouma’s remote. “What happened between you two in the virtual world?”

Ouma smirks. “What—do you want a bedtime story, Akamatsu-chan?”

She sighs as she slowly walks towards the Exisal, shrugging off her backpack with a slight wince as she does. “Kaito told me he would tell me the details but never did—I don’t know if you’ll tell me the truth, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

“Ah,” he says waving a finger at her. “I see now—you’re just an unrepentant busybody.”

Kaede rolls her eyes as she gently messages the aching shoulder of her hurt arm with one hand. “Sure, why not? So are you going to tell me?”

Ouma shrugs. “Not much of a story—I figured Momota-chan was gonna try something before we entered the virtual world, but I also knew he wouldn’t go through with it, so he was my best possible murderer to stick with. We went to Iruma-chan’s deathtrap library when I suggested the two of us go alone to ditch Hoshi-chan.”

“So you purposefully got yourself alone with someone who you knew was thinking about killing you?” Kaede says. “Why?”

“Because I knew he wouldn’t actually do it,” Ouma huffs. “Geeze, Akamatsu-chan—it’s like you’re not paying attention at all. But anyway, he shoved me into a bookcase—which kinda hurt—and then I just looked at him and asked if he was actually gonna do it. And then he got all weepy and got down on his hands and knees and started begging for my forgiveness and all that boring stuff.”

Kaede sends him a skeptical look. “Is any of that true?”

“Bits and pieces, but you did ask for my version of events, Akamatsu-chan,” Ouma says. “And like I said, Momota-chan was never gonna go through with it, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because he isn’t that kind of person,” Ouma says casually. “Duh.”

“But you still think he could be the mastermind?” Kaede says.

Ouma leans backwards to lie down on his sleeping bag and away from Kaede’s searching gaze. “That’s different—one day you’ll understand, Akamatsu-chan.”

She simply sighs as she slowly lifts herself up with one painful movement into the seat of the Exisal’s cockpit. “Ugh, sure, if you say—what is all this stuff?” she finishes her question in near disbelief at the sheer array of defunct controls in front of her. “Can a person pilot one of these?”

“Well,” Ouma says without bothering to sit up. “You’re a person, and you’re in an Exisal with the pilot controls in front of you. I think you can at least put that together yourself, right?”

“Ouma-kun—I get it, you think I’m dumb,” Kaede says. “But there’s honestly a lot of weird stuff here.”

“Like?” Ouma drawls.

Kaede reaches curiously for the microphone standing upright in the middle of the Exisal’s controls with a strangely detailed set of buttons directly under it. “Whatever this is,” she says. “It looks like… a microphone.”

“Well, if it looks like a microphone, sounds like a microphone, and tastes like a microphone,” Ouma says. “Then it’s probably the sound of you not asking me anymore stupid questions.”

Kaede barely hears his snide comment over her interest in the strange series of exactly twenty-two buttons under the microphone. She presses a larger switch near them that she takes to turn it on and hears a slight click. “I think I turned it on,” she says into the microphone, her voice echoing across the room.

Ouma sits up then to scowl at her. “Akamatsu-chan, your voice is annoying enough as is—you don’t need to make it louder.”

“I guess this is how the monokubs were able to communicate while in these things,” she says absently before reaching to hit the second button in the set. Into the microphone, she begins to say “Why are there—” and abruptly cuts herself off at the sound of Amami’s voice reverberating through the room.

That gets Ouma on his feet, and he’s at her side in a few hurried steps. “Try a different one,” he says.

Kaede blinks at him before looking back at the panel in front of her, choosing one at random from the middle this time. “This one is,” she says, her voice coming out much softer and higher pitched, “Shirogane-san apparently.”

They slowly test each one to discover each button corresponds to one of their classmates—alive and deceased, alike—as well as Monokuma and his kids. “It’s clearly a voice changer,” Kaede says as Ouma continues to fiddle with it. “But… why is something like this even here? And why is it able to replicate _our_ voices?”

“Good question,” Ouma mutters softly, still looking over the controls.

“I know Monokuma said this school was built for the sixteen of us, but,” Kaede frowns. “I don’t think we were ever supposed to see the insides of the Exisals, let alone sit in one and pretend to be someone else.”

Ouma doesn’t respond, instead opting to continue examining the defunct Exisal far too late into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had something happen to me that was a first for this fic, which is I ended up writing a chapter and realized I needed to split it into two parts in order to not just have a huge monster chapter randomly in the middle, haha. But because of that, the next chapter should hopefully be out in a few days rather than next week if all goes well!


	31. The Fifth Body Is Known

The first thing Shirogane felt when she woke up that morning was worry. There was now only a little over twenty-four hours left before the time limit expired, and she had little idea if any of her classmates were actually going to act on the plans they had been tossing back and forth. Yesterday had been both tense and awkward. Though Hoshi and Tenko had been cordial enough, it was obvious they were acting as if they were in the presence of a stranger, rather than the trusted—albeit currently rather suspicious—Kaede. 

Of course, she doubts that can be helped.

As Kaede and Ouma effectively removed themselves from the other students to launch their own plan to thwart the mastermind, it was now only the five of them, and if nothing interfered, Shirogane had the sinking suspicion that there would be a death among those still in the school, or the time limit and whatever it would bring would end without contention. 

Shirogane decided to wait just outside the dorms for Hoshi and Tenko to finish getting ready in order to walk with them—she had learned her lesson waiting with just Maki and Momota in the cafeteria before. Even with the stress of time slipping away, she simply waited, fiddling with her hair until Tenko and a very disgruntled Hoshi emerged from the dorms. 

Sensing the tension, Shirogane asks, “Ah, is something wrong?”

“Akamatsu took all of Chabashira’s painkillers with her,” Hoshi says, grimacing with each step. 

“Tenko’s going to her lab to try and see if she can find more,” Tenko says quickly. “Shirogane-san, would you mind walking Hoshi-san to the dining hall?”

“Oh, of course,” Shirogane says.

Hoshi shakes his head. “Can be alone for five seconds, Chabashira.”

Tenko scowls. “Shirogane-san will help you if you fall. Tenko is not going to have an argument about this.”

Hoshi just sighs before Tenko spins on her heel to run off down towards the lower part of the school’s campus.

“Uh,” Shirogane says, suddenly feeling very awkward with just the two of them. “Shall we go then?”

Hoshi clenches his jaw as he takes another step with his crutches. “Right behind you,” he says darkly.

The silence between them is deeply uncomfortable—at least for Shirogane—as they move at a rough crawling pace towards the school building. “So,” she says. “Ah, it’s a bit strange Chabashira-san decided to go to her lab for painkillers instead of yours or, you know, just the warehouse since those are closer to the—”

“She wants to check on Akamatsu,” he says tightly. “So it’s gonna be a while before she gets back.”

“Oh,” Shirogane says. “I… I suppose that makes the most sense, doesn’t it? Also, I know Chabashira-san really cares about Akamatsu-san, but… isn’t it plainly weird that she and Ouma-kun would lock themselves away somewhere now? I mean, I know the machinery bay wasn’t available until now, but they could have picked somewhere else during one of the other motives… if that makes sense.”

Hoshi stays quiet for a moment before muttering, “You wanna know ‘why this motive?’ That it?”

“Ah,” she says, suddenly feeling slightly embarrassed at his scolding tone. “I guess. Though, I guess it does make sense that Akamatsu-san would react badly to a time limit motive given… what happened with Amami-kun. And, well,” she hugs one of her arms. “I know Akamatsu-san doesn’t really seem inclined to give it, but I still wish we knew why that happened… and why she was able to get away with…” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have brought it up—it’s just plainly too horrible to think about.”

“Yeah,” Hoshi says after a moment. “Guess it is.”

The rest of the trip is made in awkward silence, but they make it to the cafeteria soon enough without any delays.

Shirogane hurries inside to hold the door open for Hoshi. Momota and Maki both seem to jerk up to look at them, and Shirogane already launches into an explanation of their situation without glancing back to them. “Ah, good morning—Chabashira-san is probably going to be a while, so it will just be the four of us for breakfast probably. Is that,” she finally looks over to see the deeply serious expressions on their faces. “Okay…?”

Maki and Momota share a tense look before Maki lets out a sigh and steps slightly to the side to reveal a pristine Flashback Light sitting on the dinning table. “This was here when we arrived,” she explains. “We were just talking about why Monokuma would give us something like this now.”

“Maybe he wants us to remember something before we die,” Hoshi says, slumping into a chair. “Which means it’s probably just to taunt us.”

Momota sighs. “I dunno about that, but I have a feeling it’s not gonna be anything great. If the outside world really is turned to shit…” He shakes his head. “Maybe it’s a good thing Ouma and Kaede aren’t gonna see whatever crap it is.”

“I don’t know if any of us should use it,” Maki says.

Shirogane blinks at her. “What? Why not?”

“You have a bad feeling about it or something?” Hoshi asks. 

Maki crosses her arm. “It’s just… strange. What is the point of this being here now? We would always find the Flashback Lights when we explored the school—they never just… came to us like this.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Shirogane says. “We didn’t find a Flashback Light when we were searching the school this time, did we? So maybe we… didn’t search the right place, and Monokuma just got frustrated?”

“Could be,” Momota says, rubbing the back of his head. “I know we… were all sorta pissed off at each other when we were exploring, so, yeah, we might have just fucking missed it or something like that.”

Maki keeps frowning, but she says, “I suppose.”

“Anyway,” Hoshi says. “We’re gonna have to relay whatever’s in it to Akamatsu and Ouma, but should we wait for Chabashira?”

Momota shrugs. “She’s visiting them down there, right? Well, if they’re still all together by the time we’re done, we could just tell them all at once.”

“So,” Shirogane says. “Should we just use it now?”

“Don’t see why not,” he says, casually picking it off the table. “What do you think, Harumaki? I’m only gonna do it if it’s unanimous.”

Maki stares hard at the Flashback Light in his hands, taking a moment before saying, “Fine.”

“It’s not like we have a lot left to lose if it’s something awful,” Hoshi says. “World’s destroyed, and the time limit’s ending tomorrow morning. Might as well figure out one last thing about ourselves before we die.”

“That’s a pretty… hopeless way to look at it,” Shirogane says. “But I guess that’s just the way things are.”

Momota looks over each of them and nods one last time in confirmation before flipping on the switch.

Shirogane doesn’t think she’ll ever quite get used to the dizzying, racing feeling of the Flashback Lights seeming to sear memories on to her brain like a cattle brand. Of course, as the memories of a great school full of hope they all attended together begins to swim into her mind, a more realistic part of her remembers that at the end of the day, they really are little more than sheep for the slaughter.

The school in their new memories is bright and glowing and they were heroes, first running from the Gofer project, but then coming back to be humanity’s last great hope. But hiding among them since the beginning with the intentions of throwing them all into one final killing game was the leader of the Remnants of Despair. Someone who they had thought of as a friend, but had lied to them and kept far bigger secrets than any of them could have dreamed—someone who had already killed one of their friends in cold blood—someone who wasn’t even there to see the memories of their betrayal.

The memories fade back at leaving them all reeling. Shirogane distantly hears Maki mutter, “What?” in something close to disbelief.

Momota looks absolutely shocked to the core. “I don’t—I don’t fucking believe it—this has to be…”

Hoshi lets out a deep breath, “Take it we all remembered the same thing then.”

“Y-Yeah,” Shirogane stammers. “The—the leader of the Remnants of Despair… Akamatsu Kaede had been… hiding and lying to us this whole time…”

With the exception of Momota cursing to himself, they all go quiet, just letting the information sink it when the door to the cafeteria pushes open. 

Tenko’s already talking as she enters, saying, “Akamatsu-san and Ouma-san are alright—Tenko doesn’t think sleeping in the Exisal hanger is good for their health, but they are both…” she seems to notice the atmosphere of the room all at once. “Did something happen?”

-

Kaede can’t help but feel herself becoming increasingly nervous as the day stretches on. Ouma seems as relaxed as ever, and only responds to her worries about the time limit approaching or their distinct lack of visitors since that morning when Kaede directly asks him. 

“Maybe Momota-chan had another coughing fit and keeled over,” Ouma responds while examining his nails. “Or maybe Monokuma ended the time limit early for everyone else and they’re all dead—what a tragedy.”

“Yeah, you seem really torn up about the idea of all our friends being dead,” Kaede says as she paces. “I mean, I know it’s not even evening yet, but Kaito said he’d come again today, right?”

“Maybe Harukawa-chan got tired of him running off on his own and cut off both his legs.”

Kaede pulls a face at him. “Don’t say weird, gross things like that.”

Ouma rolls his eyes and goes back to sorting through his notes. Kaede can’t say looking through his theories about the nature of the game was a waste of time as some of the arguments he had put together seemed rather convincing in light of her own experiences. His main focus seemed to be on why the game was put together the way it was—the adherence to the rules and the need for excitement. It almost seemed as if he thought the entire game was some strange story that required them to succeed sometimes and needed a certain ending—though the specifics of the ending was one of the few things even he appeared to be unsure about.

Of course, the biggest thing from his notes was the idea that they were being watched. There was an audience somewhere, and the game depended on that audience to keep watching. Kaede was rather baffled at the idea that anyone would want to watch something so horrific, but Ouma was absolutely convinced as far as she could tell.

Currently, Ouma was busying himself with trying to map out where everyone had been at certain times with some input from Kaede about her own memories on the matter. He managed to absorb himself in the project, but Kaede continued to pace. 

The monotony of their situation since that morning had been broken only by Tenko’s visit, and was only broken again a few hours later by another frenzied knocking sound coming from the bathroom. Kaede immediately jumps up to race to the bathroom window, while Ouma continues his habit of taking his sweet time for what Kaede assumes was a self-important need not to seem too eager. 

She personally had no interest in such a thing, and smiles brightly as she rushes to the window to greet a rather nervous Tenko strangely looking behind her shoulder rather than through the window as Kaede approaches. “Tenko-san,” she says, causing the other girl to jump. “We’re alright in here—maybe a bit stir crazy, but alright. Is everything out there—”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says hurriedly. “Tenko can’t be here long or the others will get suspicious, but,” she glances behind her again, biting her lip.

Kaede hears Ouma approach behind her saying, “‘Suspicious?’ Did you murder someone, Chabashira-chan?”

“Ouma-kun, that’s not funny,” Kaede says, though she pays him little mind. Tenko looks possibly more on edge than Kaede has ever seen her, and she can’t help but feel a deep sense of dread forming in the pit of her stomach. “Tenko-san, is everything alright? Why can’t you be here long?”

Tenko fidgets with something in her arms for a second before sliding a monopad through the small window, explaining the action with, “Tenko didn’t think she would have enough time to go over everything, so she got Kiibo-san to record it.”

Kaede frowns as she takes the monopad. “Record what?” 

Ouma immediately leans around her to get a look at it. “Hey, Akamatsu-chan, why don’t you let me see first while you and Chabashira-chan have your heart to heart, okay?”

Kaede looks to Tenko for reassurance for a second and the other girl still seems anxious but nods as she passes the monopad to Ouma, who merrily skips away with it. “Hey, Tenko-san, I know you said you don’t have a lot of time, but are you—”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “Do you—um, have you ever heard of the Remnants of Despair?”

“No?” Kaede says, furrowing her brow.

“Never?” Tenko asks. “Just—tell Tenko you have no idea what that is, okay?”

The panic in Tenko’s voice is starting to scare her, but Kaede says, “I’ve never heard of the Remnants of Despair until literally right now. Are they… a band or a… support group or something?”

“Okay,” Tenko says to herself, seeming to have finally calmed down slightly. “Okay. One more thing—you said you and Ouma-san know for a fact that neither of you can be the mastermind. Why is that?”

Kaede’s slightly taken aback at her question, but answers, “Uh, well, you remember when Ouma-kun handcuffed himself to me? Well, we didn’t get them off until after the blackout, so we were together the whole time including when Yumeno-san was killed, and… the only person who could have done that was the mastermind.”

“And Ouma-san can confirm that?”

“He’s mad I’m staying here, but I don’t think he would have let me in at all if that didn’t happen,” Kaede says. “But, Tenko-san, is everything really okay?”

“No,” she says letting out a deep breath. “Tenko just thinks… there’s been a horrible, horrible mistake—it’s the only thing that makes sense. But, um, make sure that you’re safe tonight, okay? Really, really safe against anything that might happen.”

Kaede just stares at her in confusion when Ouma reenters the room. He shoves the monopad in Kaede’s hands without even looking at her and stands on his tiptoes to slide a piece of paper through the window to Tenko. “Hey, Chabashira-chan, since you’re a double agent, already, would you mind doing a super secret mission for me?”

“What does that mean?” Kaede asks as Tenko hesitantly takes and unfolds the note.

“It means you should really watch Kiiboy’s video,” Ouma says. “And Chabashira-chan, if you share that note with the enemy, I’m going to be really mad and take my anger out on Akamatsu-chan.”

Kaede rolls her eyes. “Ouma-kun—”

“Tenko will… try,” she says looking up from the paper. “Um, and you be careful, too, Ouma-san, okay?”

“Boo, don’t tell me what to do,” Ouma says. “But yeah,” he folds his hands behind his head and smiles happily. “Guess giving you guys those first electrohammers to get you off my back turned out to be a bad idea, huh?”

Tenko’s eyes suddenly widen in panic. “Tenko is going to go check on those right now,” she says. “A-And then she will try to do… ‘your mission.’”

“See that you do!” Ouma says.

Kaede just looks between them trying to figure out what is possibly happening when Tenko shifts to address her. “Goodbye, Kaede-san—and please make sure you stay safe tonight, okay?”

“I will,” Kaede says despite still being at a complete loss. 

Tenko’s sheer nerves do little to make the smile she gives them before speeding away look convincing, and with her gone Ouma simply says, “Akamatsu-chan, I think you made someone really angry,” as he reaches out to tap the monopad in her hands’ screen. “To tell the truth, I’m actually almost impressed. Be more impressed if it didn’t mean we’re now both probably going to be killed, but that’s life, isn’t it?”

Kaede stares at him in bewilderment before reaching down to finally turn Kiibo back on.

“Akamatsu-san,” he greets her. “I assume there is little time for pleasantries, and you would like to see Chabashira-san’s video, correct?”

“Yeah,” she says. “I think that’s what’s happening here.”

“Very well,” Kiibo says. 

The screen briefly fades to black and Kaede registers that Ouma is now standing on his tiptoes next to her, though he seems more focused on whatever her reaction is going to be than watching the video a second time.

She hears sounds of shuffling coming from the monopad and glances back at it to see what she is fairly certain is a view of the underside of the dining table in the cafeteria. It immediately occurs to her that Tenko probably recorded this without the others’ knowledge when the echoing voices in the video begin to sharpen into something recognizable. 

“—something we’re missing!” she hears Momota say. “Like, there has to be another fucking Flashback Light somewhere that we never found, and—”

“And it what?” Maki says. “It’ll completely contradict what we just saw?”

“I don’t fucking know—maybe!” he says back, something close to frantic. “Or it’ll at least explain this shit.”

Shirogane’s softer voice is harder to make out, but Kaede can hear her mumbling, “That’d be really nice, wouldn’t it? If there was some other… less horrible explanation. I want to believe that’s true, and it’s something we could find, but—these are just plainly our memories, right? Is there any explaining that away?”

Momota lets out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know. Fuck—I don’t know.”

“Have a different question,” Hoshi says. “So, Akamatsu’s locked up with Ouma, right? Knowing that, what are the chances he survives the time limit?”

Tenko’s voice is much louder than the others due to being closer to the monopad, and every note of distress comes through bright and clear as she says, “What are you saying!? Kaede-san would never—”

“It turns out we all thought she would never do a lot of things,” Maki says. “Of course, we already knew we were wrong about that, but that still wasn’t enough to finally convince us.”

“Um, this is just a theory,” Shirogane says. “But do you think that maybe Akamatsu-san wanted us to figure it out earlier when she revealed that she killed Amami-kun? But… we didn’t, so she just left the Flashback Light so we couldn’t deny the truth anymore?”

Kaede frowns, her confusion fading to a dull but rising horror. “Would that make the Flashback Light a ‘come get me’ thing, then?” Hoshi says. “The Remnants of Despair hated boredom, so… maybe she got bored.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Tenko insists.

“Chabashira,” Momota says with a sigh. “You didn’t see the Flashback Light. The Remnants of Despair, and fucking… Enoshima Junko—boredom and despair was like their whole thing.”

“And Kaede-san isn’t like that!” she shouts back.

“I know!” Momota yells back at her in a sudden spike, before letting out a sigh. “I know—at least I thought I knew, but it’s pretty fucking hard to just argue with your memories.” 

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “It all seems so real that I plainly can’t believe I forgot in the first place. And… it makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Tenko gasps before shouting, “T-Tenko already told you—none of this makes any sense!”

“You’re talking about what happened with Amami,” Maki says softly. “If Akamatsu wanted this game, then it’d make sense that she’d try to get it started with the first murder… and then also make sure she’d survive the trial so she could keep the game going.” Kaede hears her shift slightly, and something close to doubt seems to creep into her tone. “However, that would mean she also knew Saihara would do what he did.”

Their conversation continues, but Kaede can barely process it, muttering aloud, “what is this?”

“A desperation move,” Ouma says. “The time limit’s ending tomorrow morning, and the mastermind’s making their move. Keep listening,” he nods at the monopad. “Chabashira-chan happened to record something interesting.”

Her eyes briefly flicker over him, and—even though nothing interesting is happening on the screen—she dutifully returns to watching the video. She tunes back in to catch Hoshi saying, “debating whether it’s true or not isn’t going to get us anywhere. Real question is if this is Akamatsu revealing herself, what are we supposed to do?”

“Oh,” Shirogane says. “Hoshi-kun, you mentioned it earlier, but does this mean Ouma-kun is in danger? Should we… go rescue him?”

“I think,” Momota says. “We should at least try and talk to her, right? You know, figure out what the hell is going on? I mean, for all we know, maybe she lost her memories, too, and has no idea about any of this.”

“Which would mean someone else put this here and wanted us to remember that she’s a Remnant of Despair,” Maki says. “That doesn’t—” she abruptly stops, and Kaede desperately wishes she could see what’s happening.

Momota says, “Harumaki? Something the matter?”

“No,” Maki says. “It’s nothing. I was just trying to think how this relates to the time limit and… the rest of the killing game.”

“What do you mean?” Shirogane asks. “I thought we said this was just, well, out of boredom, right? Oh!” her voice jolts suddenly before growing much quieter as she mumbles, “Oh no…”

“Shirogane-san?” Tenko asks. “Did something happen—did you remember something new?”

“Um, no,” she says. “Nothing like that. I just… thought of something horrible. What if the reason Akamatsu-san left the Flashback Light for us is because Ouma-kun’s already dead? And if we try and go to the hanger we’ll find his body and… have another trial…”

Hoshi sighs. “Don’t know about that—wouldn’t be much of a trial if we already knew who the culprit was, right?”

“Maybe,” Maki says. “Though given Monokuma’s obsession with making things ‘interesting,’ he’d probably make us figure out the details anyway. A trial where you already know the culprit… that’s not what Monokuma wants.”

“Which means Ouma’s still alive,” Momota says. “End of conversation. And if you guys are that worried about him, I’ll go down to the hanger and check myself.”

“But is going there by yourself really okay?” Shirogane asks. “If anything happened…”

Maki sighs. “If Momota goes to the hanger by himself, he’ll just talk to Akamatsu.”

“Is that a problem?” Tenko asks. 

“Could be,” Hoshi says. “We don’t know how the mastermind’s getting the footage from their cameras, but if Akamatsu’s stuck in the hanger with Ouma, there’s a chance she’s cut off or at least can’t check while he’s watching. Maybe this is our chance to actually do something.”

“Would the mastermind really do something that fucking stupid, though?” Momota asks.

“We can’t know what the mastermind’s thinking,” Maki cuts in. “We don’t know what hidden resources they have or what will satisfy their goal other than to not be boring.”

Shirogane asks, “So… is it hopeless to try and guess what their plan is? But if we believe that, then there plainly isn’t anything we can do to end this killing game. And as students of Hope Peak’s Academy, it’s our duty to stop them even if… even if,” her voice grows much softer and Kaede has to strain her ears to make out her whispering, “even if it means killing them.”

Tenko’s voice spikes to a yell. “No one is killing Kaede-san! And if anyone tries, then they’re going to have to go through Tenko first!”

“A-Ah, I-I didn’t mean it like that!” Shirogane quickly amends. “Of course, I don’t want Akamatsu-san dead! I was just—”

“Saying how the game ends,” Hoshi says. “This game is obviously created by someone carrying out Enoshima Junko’s will, and a Remnant of Despair—well, who the hell else would do something like this?”

“That’s right,” Maki says, voice soft. “It… it is hard to believe that anyone besides a Remnant of Despair could be the mastermind. It… it confirms everything we’ve been thinking about Akamatsu, too.”

“‘We?’” Tenko says. “The only one who thinks Kaede-san would do anything like that is you!”

“Guys,” Momota says, voice becoming strained. “Guys, stop—stop fucking fighting, alright? We don’t have time for this.”

Shirogane lets out a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. But I just don’t understand what we’re supposed to do now. We have this information, and Monokuma’s attack is tomorrow morning, so should we at least try to defend ourselves?”

“Got the electrohammers, though Ouma said their charges don’t last long,” Hoshi says. “And—don’t know how much good it’ll do—but we could break the lock off of Harukawa’s lab and see if there’s anything in there.”

“I could,” Maki says quietly. 

“Weapons like those won’t do anything against Monokuma!” Tenko protests. “The only person you’d use them against is Kaede-san! So—so if you try to do that, then Tenko will stop you.”

Maki’s voice is calm as she responds, “You’re going to fight me?”

“Stop, st-stop!” Momota shouts, though his voice sounds more tired than anything else. “Like hell any of—any of us—a-any…” 

He mumbles a bit more to himself, though Kaede can barely make any of it out, and Maki’s voice spikes in concern, saying, “Momota?”

He starts to choke out the words “I’m fine,” before giving way to haggard coughing. The others begin to talk over one another, and Kaede hears the sounds of hurried footsteps as she assumes they rush to his side when she hears a worryingly loud thump like something crashing to the floor. 

All Kaede can clearly make out are sounds of Momota gasping to try and catch his breath between coughs before the video abruptly clicks off. Kiibo’s face reappears, and he informs her, “Chabashira-san stopped recording there and instructed me to remain off so as not to draw any suspicion for the rest of the meeting.”

“I,” Kaede lets out a shaky breath, trying to take in what she just heard. “I see. Thank you, Kiibo-kun.”

“It is no trouble,” he says. “However, with the approaching time limit, I am debating taking action myself.”

“Action?” Kaede says.

“Huh?” Ouma says. “You mean you’re not completely useless after all?”

Kiibo’s face shifts to a frown. “Though I am aware it is illogical to place personal feelings as priorities given our current situation, if at all possible, I would prefer not to speak to Ouma-kun.”

Ouma starts to sniffle. “What? That’s so mean of—”

“Ouma-kun, now is really not the time,” Kaede snaps before turning to address Kiibo again. “Kiibo-kun, what ‘action’ can you do to help us?”

“I am unsure,” he answers. “I have been examining my programming and there is one possible command I can execute, though it only has the description ‘for the worst case scenario.’ I am aware it seems to be connected to a different computer somewhere else, but that is all the knowledge I have.”

Kaede’s mouth twists into a thin line. “‘Worst case scenario’ sounds kind of like what’s happening.”

“It does, however,” Kiibo’s face falls. “Iruma-san was the one who programmed it. And I… I believe it is likely she installed it with the ‘worst case scenario’ being her execution, which perhaps was why she… screamed for me to help her. However, I failed to realize what she meant at the time.”

Kaede feels a pang of sympathy for him, though it’s far overwhelmed by her own panic beginning to drown out everything else. “I’m really sorry, Kiibo-kun,” she says. “But do you think that that would be helpful now?”

“I am unsure,” he says. “To be frank, I am mainly considering it due to the approaching time limit. If we are in fact the last survivors of humanity, then I cannot in good conscious allow us all to simply die. It is all I can do for the sake of humanity’s last hope for the future.”

“Soooo,” Ouma says. “In conclusion, Kiiboy has a maybe plan and we have no idea what it does.”

“In conclusion,” Kaede says. “We need to figure out what the hell the others saw in the Flashback Light.”

“That seems logical,” Kiibo says. “If you require my services any further, please contact me. In the meantime, I will continue attempting to investigate other potential plans of action.”

Kaede nods. “Alright, let us know if you figure anything out.”

“Of course,” he says before flicking himself off.

Kaede stares down at her tense expression reflected back in the black screen of the monopad for a second before squeezing her eyes shut. “So,” she says. “Apparently, I’m a… Remnant of Despair, which is a… person that likes killing games and hates being bored?”

“And is the mastermind of the killing game, probably,” Ouma adds. “So, your thoughts, Akamatsu-chan?”

“You know this isn’t true,” she says with a huff. “I know the others apparently remembered due to a Flashback Light, but I,” she shakes her head, “I have literally never even heard of the Remnants of Despair until today.”

Ouma nods. “I see, I see,” he says. “But have you considered this—the Flashback Light wasn’t meant for us?”

Kaede blinks at him. “What?” 

“A Flashback Light saying you’re the mastermind suddenly appears when the two people who know for a fact you’re not can’t see it,” Ouma says, folding his arms behind his head. “It just seems like a funny coincidence to me, is all.”

“How can a Flashback Light be meant for anyone?” Kaede says. “They’re just supposed to restore our lost memories, right?”

“See, you say that, Akamatsu-chan,” Ouma says. “But if that’s true, then that means you are a Remnant of Whatever. But that’s…”

He looks to her expectantly, and Kaede frowns as she says, “A lie. You think the Flashback Lights are all lies?”

“I think the mastermind has complete control of this place,” he says. “And the truth is whatever they want it to be. So maybe the truth was that Saihara-chan killed Amami-chan, and then maybe it’s that you did it on accident, and now it’s that you did it because you were evil all along.”

Kaede thinks for a moment before she lets out a deep breath. “They just… care about what makes the game the most interesting.”

Ouma laughs. “Look at you, Akamatsu-chan! Finally catching on. But anyway,” he keeps smiling even as his words grow darker. “The mastermind has decided you need to die to keep the game moving, and now we have to figure out what to do before Harukawa-chan bursts through the door and kills you.”

“That’s not funny,” Kaede snaps. “And isn’t the whole reason we’re down here is to make sure that won’t happen?”

He hums as he starts to walk away from her. “True, but you feel different now knowing it’s actually _going_ to happen, right?”

Kaede follows after him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Ouma keeps walking towards the front of the hanger, slipping the remote control to the Exisals into his hand. “It means I’m trying to make a decision, and you need to be quiet while I think.”

“And that decision is?” Kaede presses.

Though Ouma’s back is to her, she can perfectly picture him rolling his eyes as he says, “You’re the target, Akamatsu-chan. So right now I’m weighing the pros and cons of sticking around.”

Kaede gapes at him openmouthed for a moment before admittedly dropping Kiibo to the ground a bit too roughly so she has both her hands free when she marches up to Ouma to grab him by the shoulder and force him to face her. “You’re what?”

Ouma immediately wrenches out of her grip, and Kaede notices something shockingly honest in his scowl. “You assumed I meant I was leaving you to die,” he says, twisting his frown into a particularly cruel smile. “Don’t be stupid—if Harukawa-chan kills you, we have another by the book trial, and Monokuma gets everything he wants. Abandoning you to save myself would only ensure the game continues uninterrupted, and, thus, is not in my personal interest.”

“Then what the hell is in your ‘personal interest?’” Kaede says. “And is that literally how you weigh everything—whether or not Monokuma or the mastermind or the conspiracy you think is apparently behind everything would be happy or not?”

“Most things,” he answers with a shrug, returning his attention to the remote in his hands. “But instead of getting all fussy at me, maybe you should actually think about our defenses like I tried to do before you got mad over nothing.”

Kaede only raises her eyebrows. “You specifically framed the way you were thinking things over to make it seem like you were debating if you were going to take the Exisals and let Harukawa-san kill me. And I’m being unreasonable?”

“Sure are,” Ouma says before directing his gaze to the Exisals still standing guard over the hanger’s entrance. “Especially since I may have talked up our defenses to get people to leave us alone. Because really, all it takes is one electrohammer swing to knock down the barrier, and though I have the Exisals, all I can really do is try to smack someone down with one since actually firing their guns is too likely to result in a fatality and then we’d be back at square one, and I guess there’s the hanger’s alarm, but all that does is tell us when someone’s come to kill you.”

Kaede blinks at him. “You’re—you’re thinking about all of that right now.”

Ouma shoots her a beaming smile. “Which is why I very kindly asked you to shut up, Akamatsu-chan—it’s in both of our best interests, you know?”

Kaede looks him over for a moment more before sighing in resignation. “Fine, fine—you spent more time checking this place out earlier anyway. But I’m also not just about to stand around and do nothing. So, is there something I can do to help?”

Ouma doesn’t respond immediately, but after a moment, he casually says, “Check the time. It’s getting late, and if someone’s going to come, it’s going to be tonight.” 

Kaede frowns at what feels like a pointless assignment, but nevertheless, dutifully slides her monopad out of her backpack with only a slight wince at moving her bad arm. “It’s a little after midnight,” she says. “I don’t know what that—”

She cuts herself off as they both jerk at the frenzied sound of what Kaede recognizes as someone banging their hand against the wall with the bathroom window. She and Ouma exchange one look, before quickly speed walking towards the bathroom. 

Momota’s voice calls out to them through the window as they enter the room, and Kaede notices some of the tension seem to fall out of Ouma’s movements as he skips to the window, greeting the other boy with, “Aww, I knew you couldn’t stay away.”

“Listen,” Momota says, his voice sounding only a touch less panicked than Tenko’s earlier. “It’s really great to see you’re still doing alright and shit, but is Kaede there? I need to talk to her.”

Ouma puffs out his cheeks but moves out of the way with low protest other than a whiny, drawn out, “Fiiiine.”

“I’m here,” Kaede says, approaching the window. “And, uh, what did you want to talk to me about?”

The decision not to rat out Tenko is an easy one, and the lack of suspicion on Momota’s face quickly lets Kaede deduce the extent of Tenko’s secrecy. “Yeah,” he says. “I just… Okay, this is gonna sound weird and crap, but I need to talk to you about Saihara’s trial real quick.”

She asks, “Why?” despite knowing the exact answer.

“Yeah, why?” Ouma decides to chime in, keeping his voice to a sickly sweet innocent tone. “Do you think Saihara-chan faked his death and is the mastermind?”

Momota frowns. “No, it’s just,” he sighs. “Kaede, you’re still… you, right?”

“I am,” she says. “Why do you ask?”

Her answer is simple, but for some reason he lets out a breath in relief. “It’s, uh,” he rubs the back of his head. “Sort of hard to explain, but when you guys get out of there, we really need to sit down and talk about—”

For half a second, Kaede has no idea what the piercing, blaring sound suddenly echoing around them is. Momota seems to take a second longer, too, asking, “The hell is that—” before his eyes widen in horror, and he darts away from the window, his padded footsteps almost completely drowned out by the shutter’s security alarm.

She looks back to Ouma, to see him already halfway across the room, remote in hand, and Kaede races after him to catch up. 

Ouma doesn’t bother with turning off the alarm, and the scene of the shutter rolling up to reveal Maki standing there with a black bag slung over her shoulder and what looks like a crossbow in one hand is set to the background noise of what sounds like hell.

Kaede hears Momota’s voice call out, as he rounds the corner, but whatever he’s trying to say gets lost over the noise of the Exisals Ouma has poised in front of the door suddenly springing to life. One of them swings its great metal arm, but Maki is far faster. Kaede can barely make out her form speeding past the first one and dodging an attempt by the second one to smack her down.

Kaede has almost no idea what to do other than stay a few steps behind Ouma, watching him panic for perhaps the first time ever as his fingers fly over the remote in desperation. She also quickly realizes how handcuffed he is in the situation, as Momota seems determined to follow after Maki, and Kaede can only imagine how badly being hit by one of the Exisals would hurt him.

Maki keeps moving, everything about her seeming almost completely emotionless, even as Momota shouts out her name, and Ouma continues his handicapped assault. Then, for one second, Maki moves out of the pursing Exisals’ reach and into a brief spot of safety, bringing her crossbow up.

The alarm still blaring and the crashing sound of the Exisals’ metal feet are near deafening, but the image of Maki with the light shining off of the metal tip of her crossbow bolt seems like the clearest thing in the world to Kaede. Perhaps even clearer is the fact that she seems to be aiming for Ouma, still messing with the remote, and Kaede’s moving before she can even process what the hell her brain thinks this will accomplish. 

Momota shouts, “Ouma!” and the other boy’s head jerks up at roughly the same time Kaede tackles him to the ground. 

Ouma lets out a strangled cry as they land hard on the floor, and while Kaede’s arm is screaming in pain, she’s briefly confused at such a strong reaction to their fall until she notices she was a second too late.

There’s an arrow embedded in his arm, and he clutches at the entry wound with little other than a brief hiss of pain through his clenched teeth. Kaede stares at him in a mixture of horror and pity until it dawns on her that he’s no longer holding the Exisal remote. 

In fact, she only momentarily recognizes that the sound of metal crashing against metal has stopped when she whips her head to the side to see the remote lying on the ground a few feet away from them, likely having flown out of Ouma’s hands and skidded across the floor. 

She immediately regrets the second where she’s torn between checking to see if Ouma’s okay and diving for the remote as Maki’s already snapping it up into her hand. Momota runs up behind her, breathing heavily and voice strained from shouting as he yells, “Harukawa! The hell are you doing!?”

“Stay back,” she says, voice detached and barely audible under the noise of the alarm. 

Momota doesn’t stop moving towards her, reaching forward to try and jerk her to face him, though she remains rooted in place. “Haru—”

“I said to stay back,” Maki says again. “In fact, you need to leave right now.”

Momota shouts in protest, and Kaede slowly rises to her feet while keeping an eye on Ouma pushing himself up into a sitting position. When she looks back, she notices that Momota has managed to make his way to be standing directly in front of Maki’s crossbow, despite her obvious irritation. 

His voice is softer now, and Kaede can only just make out what he’s saying. “Listen to me, you don’t have to do this,” he says. “Harumaki—look at me, we can talk this through.”

“That’s not a possibility anymore,” she says back. “I can’t ignore this opportunity to end the game, and if you trust me at all, then you will leave right now.”

Though she knows it will do absolutely nothing to help, Kaede cannot help but scoff. “Trust?” she says, and both of them seem to notice her presence for the first time. “Trust? You’re literally trying to commit murder right now!”

“Kaede, shut up,” Momota says tersely. “Harumaki, I get what you’re trying to do, but—”

“You don’t,” Maki says. “And now you need to leave right now.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says. “Because I’m going to protect Ouma, and Kaede, and also you, which means absolutely nothing is going to make me leave.”

Maki looks up at him, coldly. “The arrow I shot Ouma with is poisoned,” she says. “There’s an antidote in Saihara’s lab, and if you want to get it that means you will have to leave.”

Ouma lets out a low laugh as he staggers to his feet. “Clever, Harumaki-chan,” he breathes out. “Shoot me, take out the Exisals, force Momota-chan to leave to get the antidote so you can kill Akamatsu-chan in peace. I mean, I figured it all out in five seconds, but still clever.”

“Ouma, stop,” Momota says. “Just stop fucking fighting each other for five seconds. So here’s what’s going to happen—you’re going to realize this is a huge mistake, and I’m taking Ouma and Kaede out of here.”

“Momota,” Maki says. “Leave now or I am going to force you to. I have to end this game now, and I am not going to let you stop me.”

“What? Harumaki,” he says, looking absolutely baffled. “You’re not… you’re not going to hurt me.”

“No,” she says, leveling her crossbow again. “I’m not.”

Kaede sees Maki spin towards her then registers a near unbearable pain in leg. She hears Momota shout something as her legs give out from under her, and she sees the arrow protruding from her shin through the sheer veil of pain clouding everything.

Maki’s voice sounds almost muffled to Kaede over the roaring in her ears. “—they’re both poisoned and if you refuse to leave—”

They keep talking, but Kaede can focus on nothing other than the pain currently surging through her. Their voices seem to swell and fade again in volume while the alarm keeps screaming over them and her hands shake as she moves them towards the shaft of the arrow. Brushing it with her finger tips only sends new shudders down her leg, and she has to bite down hard on her lip to stop herself from making any noise. 

She’s in the middle of fighting a battle to stop herself from fainting, when she hears Ouma’s voice very close to her, saying quietly, “Akamatsu-chan, stand up.”

She looks at him still completely dazed, “W-What?”

“We have a better chance of getting away if you’re already standing,” he breathes out.

Kaede looks at him at a complete loss until she hears Momota and Maki’s voices beginning to spike again. “I am giving you an opportunity to leave right now.”

“So you want me to just choose which one of them I let you fucking kill!?” he shouts back. “And you’re going to die, too!”

“That’s not important,” Maki says. “Now take one and leave.”

Momota stares hard at Maki for a moment, and is only vaguely aware that Ouma seems to be waiting expectantly for something when he lunges at her. Maki seems taken aback enough by the action that the crossbow falls from her grip, and Momota shouts, “Run!”

Ouma yanks Kaede’s good arm over her shoulder before she can echo a word of protest other than an involuntary shout of pain when he pulls her to her feet. 

Ouma doesn’t falter in speed for a second short of having to physically drag her the first few steps, chattering rapid fire under his breath. “Harukawa-chan isn’t going to hurt Momota-chan, but he still isn’t going to last more than a minute in a fight with her. Running away is impossible, so our best chance is to hide and then make a break to the machinery bay’s entrance to call for more help.”

Kaede nods weakly. “R-Right,” she breathes out. She dully registers the arrow still jutting out of his arm and the sweat beading thickly on his brow. “Right…” she says again.

It’s only when they’re out of the hanger that Kaede feels grateful for the alarm as it covers the sound of their ragged breathing. She also can no longer here any sounds of fighting but also no footsteps echoing behind them when Ouma juts his chin towards a fork in their path. “There. And try not to leave a trail of blood to us.”

“I don’t,” she heaves, “don’t really have control over that.”

“I know,” Ouma says, managing to grin in spite of the obvious pain on his face. “But it’s the thought that counts, right, Akamatsu-chan?”

They shift their awkward staggering down his indicated path, and Kaede’s about to articulate whatever retort back to him that she can think of when she begins to hear yelling again. Ouma seems to hear it too, and Kaede clamps her free hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming when he pulls too hard and her weight shifts on to her injured leg. 

Ouma guides them to a slightly out of the way alcove, and makes no other movement that to bring one of his thin fingers to his lips. Kaede understands the gesture easily enough even with the muddled state of her brain and does her best to even her breathing to a relatively silent level. Perhaps it’s the pain or the drawn out exposure to the hanger’s alarm, but Kaede finds herself fighting against a determined ringing in her ears to hone into any potential sounds of movement towards their location.

They wait another moment, before Ouma says very softly, “we can try and move to a better spot further in if the coast is clear. Then we’ll be super safe for sure.”

If Kaede had even an ounce more energy, she knows she would call him out on trying to lie or joke around at a time like this, but instead she simply nods in agreement, and they keep moving through the twisting tunnels. Every so often she hears hurried footsteps or what she thinks is Momota either calling out to Maki, but she has little idea what direction any of it is coming from. And she knows if she has no idea, then Ouma must be positioning them even more blindly than she could. “Worst case scenario,” he whispers. “Harukawa-chan’s decided hunting us down is lame and is just guarding the exit. Then plan hide and wait for an opening is a failure.”

Kaede swallows to try and find some of her composure again. “Well,” she whispers back. “Plan A was making a run for it and dying, right? So… this is better.”

Ouma smiles wryly. “Don’t know about that. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get curious about what kind of poison Harumaki-chan stuck us with. Nothing fast acting obviously, but, you know, you gotta wonder what’s better—dying slowly from poison or getting shot in the head with an arrow.”

“Do you have to wonder that?” Kaede asks.

“Well, you don’t, but it keeps me up at night.”

“Ouma-kun, I don’t whether that was a lie or a joke about our current situation,” Kaede says, tiredly. “But I’m really not in the mood for gallows humor.”

He laughs breathlessly. “Right, I’ll knock off the funny guy routine. Instead, all our hope is in Momota-chan talking her down before she finds us and kills us or the poison does it for her. That better?”

“Something between making jokes and telling me we’re going to die,” Kaede says, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. Their banter is a centering point for her mind, but the sheer act of talking feels like climbing a mountain. “Something in that range, please.”

“We’re going to die,” Ouma says, his tone confused of all things. “Why are we both going to die?”

“Because, ah,” Kaede hisses slightly at a misstep before trying to refocus on their conversation. “Because I’m a Remnant of whatever, and you’re…”

Ouma smirks. “The word you’re looking for, Akamatsu-chan, is ‘collateral.’ Or maybe Harukawa-chan wants to hedge her bets, or maybe she doesn’t like Momota-chan spreading his loyalties and wants to take out the competition.”

Kaede sighs. “Is she that petty?”

Ouma goes quiet for a moment, leaving the ringing of the alarm to echo uninterrupted over them. Kaede can only guess whatever his mind also intoxicated with agony must be thinking when he softly says, “Good question.”

She isn’t sure how to respond to that, and his voice is labored enough that she opts to give them both the mercy of silence as they wander aimlessly. Kaede channels her energy into staying on her feet and keeping herself quiet—they stop her from looking down at the arrow sticking out of her leg or thinking about how likely it is she might die. She spares glances at Ouma—who’s wearing a far too serious expression for his childish face—and the arrow in his arm and wonders absently just how high his pain tolerance is.

The next time they speak is when the oddly reliable background noise of the hanger’s alarm vanishes. The silence that replaces it seems even louder, and Kaede is sure that both she and Ouma stop breathing for the first few seconds of quiet. 

Then, “Someone has to be at the hanger,” Kaede says. “You still have the remote, which means someone went back to turn it off.”

Ouma pauses for a moment. “Right,” he says. “Or it could be Monokuma.”

“Maybe,” she says. “But if it is Harukawa-san, then we might have a chance to make a run for it. And besides, I’m really starting to doubt she’s just going to get bored and leave. And we also need to get the antidote.”

Ouma doesn’t respond right away, and Kaede has to wonder what the hell he’s possibly thinking over when he finally says, “Exit it is. Lead the way, fearless leader.”

With that he pivots them the opposite way with only a slight struggle to set them in the direction of hobbling towards the exit. “Hey, Akamatsu-chan,” he says. “You wanna know something funny?”

“Not really,” she answers, trying to strain her ears to listen for the sounds of footsteps.

“Harukawa-chan gave Momota-chan a choice in who to save, right?” he says. “I just thought that was funny.”

Kaede breathes out, “Hilarious,” as she only pays half attention to whatever he’s trying to tell her. 

Ouma goes quiet other than the sounds of his ragged breathing and slight padding of his feet on the cold metal floor. Her vision feels cloudier the longer they move, and Kaede begins to feel a slight stinging, prickling sensation creeping up her leg. She grits her teeth and forces herself not to ask if Ouma feels anything similar, especially as she begins to recognize the path to the entrance again.

Ouma seems to notice, too, and picks up the pace slightly, softly muttering under his breath, “I can’t believe it.”

Kaede opens her mouth to respond when she hears the sound of someone coughing from up ahead. Ouma tries to slow down, but Kaede pulls him forward until they turn the last corner to face the exit and see Maki and a very haggard looking Momota seemingly in the middle of some sort of standoff in front of the door. 

Momota glances over his shoulder at them, saying only, “Fuck.”

“I don’t know why you bothered to turn off the alarm,” Maki says. “Or draw this out unnecessarily, but we can finally put this to an end and stop this game.”

Kaede just looks at her openmouthed before feeling a tight rage consume her. “Why the hell are you doing this? If you want to kill me, just shoot me now! Do you like seeing us all suffer? Do you really like killing and torturing people that much?”

Maki flickers her eyes over her coldly for a second before saying, “Momota, just pick one and leave. I don’t care.”

“And you’re going to torture him, too?” Kaede says. “You’re really going to make him decide which one of his friends he leaves to be _killed_?”

“Kaede,” Momota says. “Harukawa—Maki. Just… just—”

Ouma laughs. “You guys are all… so funny,” he says, breathlessly. “You’re all acting like this is an actual choice.” 

He shifts beside Kaede, unhooking his arm from around her shoulders. “Ouma,” Momota says. “What are you doing?”

“Not about what I’m doing—Harukawa-chan’s demanding either me or Akamatsu-chan dies to stop the time limit, right?” Ouma says. “And you’re being a big liar and pretending you’re having a hard time choosing whether to save me or Akamatsu-chan.”

Momota looks at him in horror. “Oum—”

Before Kaede can think, she feels Ouma’s hands shoving her forward and the fall to the ground onto her injured leg, sends new waves of pain soaring through her. She hears movement of someone rushing towards her, and everything seems to be swimming when she looks up—up at Momota suddenly kneeling in front of her, up at Ouma somehow smiling while agreeing to die, up at Maki watching the entire situation play out before her without a hint of emotion. 

“Well, then,” Ouma says. “I guess we’re done here now that we’ve all made up our minds.”

Momota stares at him for a moment before he pulls one of Kaede’s arms over his shoulder, making her hiss in pain. His jaw is clenched tightly as they limp towards the exit where he pauses to look at Maki. “I’m… I’m taking Kaede to get the antidote, and then I’m bringing the rest down here for Ouma. No one’s… no one’s going to die. Maki…”

Maki’s face seems almost regretful. “I’m sorry—for a lot of things, but this is how it has to be. Now leave.”

Momota pauses for a moment more before cursing under his breath and shuffling out into the cold night air. He shifts briefly to give them one last look, and Kaede hears the door close tight behind them. Momota swears again as they move forward faster now. “We don’t have a lot of time,” he says. “Gotta get you the antidote and then come back and finish talking her down.”

Kaede gapes at him as she struggles to keep up. “You—you do realize what just happened? We just left Ouma-kun to—”

“No, we didn’t,” he snaps. “I’m fucking going back later, and I’m going to save him, alright?”

Kaede finds herself too dizzy and too disgusted to properly formulate a response, and the next sound between them is Momota calling out for help when they reach the dorms. They pause for a moment to wait and are about to give up as Shirogane emerges through the doors, hands pressed to her chest in horror. “Momota-ku—wha-what’s happening!? Why is Akamatsu-san—”

“Just help me,” he says. “We need to take her to Saihara’s lab, and—hey, where the hell is Chabashira?”

“I-I don’t know,” Shirogane says. “She went up to the fifth floor earlier, so if we’re going there, I guess we’ll see her?”

Momota grimaces. “Alright, fine. Here, take Kaede’s other arm.”

Shirogane pauses, obviously wary of doing such a thing, and Momota shouts, “Just fucking do it already—we don’t have time!”

Shirogane squeaks as she rushes to help, and Kaede would feel a little bad for her if she wasn’t currently very nervous about the odd numbing feeling stemming through her leg.

They’re able to make the trip across the school reasonably fast despite Momota’s obvious difficulty moving at such a pace and the pain it brings Kaede. 

The last flight of stairs feels particularly brutal, and she lets out a sigh of relief when they finally ascend to the top of them. However, any such feelings vanish instantly as Shirogane shrieks, “Chabashira-san!” and drops her support from Kaede to sprint towards the sight of the girl in question lying on the floor in front of Saihara’s lab.

Though she’s very aware walking on her own is a bad idea, Kaede pushes herself away from Momota and manages to scramble the last few feet on sheer willpower alone to Tenko’s side. She is at an absolute loss for words as she stares down at her and hears Momota approaching behind them, asking, “Fuck, is she—”

“No,” Kaede says abruptly. “No—n-no, she isn’t—she isn’t—she—”

“The body announcement hasn’t played,” Shirogane says suddenly. “I mean, if she was… it would have played, right?”

With her rush of emotions, Kaede feels like she could hug the other girl if she had the strength for it. Instead Momota says, “Shirogane—you get Kaede, I’ll help Chabashira inside.”

“Into Saihara-kun’s lab?” Shirogane asks.

“Yes,” he says. “And then we’re going to find the fucking antidote, give some to Kaede, and you can watch over them while I take the rest to Ouma.”

Shirogane begins to do as she’s told before staring up at him in confusion. “What?”

Momota opens and closes his mouth a few times as he hauls Tenko’s body up with obvious effort into his arms, “It’s hard to explain—”

“Right now,” Kaede says. “Right now while we’re talking, Harukawa-san is killing Ouma-kun.”

Shirogane blinks at both of them wordlessly before saying, “Oh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had all the major plot points for this fic planned out since about the middle of chapter 2, and even back then I knew this chapter would be difficult to write, haha. I also went into writing this chapter expecting some angry responses, so I'll I can really do is assure that this is a mystery with a few more twists about the hows and whys (which is actually my personal favorite part of dr mysteries, though I think most people reading this fic could probably guess that, haha).


	32. Investigation IV

The armchairs in Saihara’s lab are a great relief for Shirogane as she only has to awkwardly shuffle a few feet carrying the bulk of Kaede’s weight to one. Shirogane hovers over her as Kaede collapses into the chair, gingerly lifting her leg with the arrow still sticking out of closer to her. 

Momota’s face looks haggard and sweat stained, but he moves quickly in depositing Tenko’s body into one of the other chairs before rushing over to the cabinet lined with poisons. He curses to himself about Monokuma likely having restocked the shelf at some point so as to fill it with thoroughly useless chemicals. 

Shirogane’s eyes dart between him and Kaede very hesitantly reaching for the arrow in her leg. She tears her gaze away from the former, wanting to spare herself the bloody sight and instead busies herself at the table in the center of the room. She remembers only entering this room once when they had explored so long ago, and though Shirogane remembers little of the specifics, the bottles set out on the table catch her attention as suspicious. “Um, Momota-kun,” she says, lifting a small bottle. “I think Harukawa-san just left the poison she used right here.”

Momota’s head jerks to her, and he sprints the few steps over to take the bottle from her hands. His eyes run over the label at rapid speed as he mumbles the warnings to himself for reference. “Effective whether taken orally or through the blood stream, yadayada, often in food, odorless—the more you take, the faster it kills you, the more antidote you need to counteract it… got it.”

He nods once, thrusting the bottle back into Shirogane’s hands to search the cabinet again with more precise direction. “There couldn’t have been much on the arrows,” he says mostly to himself as he searches. “But Ouma’s small, so it’ll probably have a greater effect or some shit… here!”

He pulls away again with a similar looking bottle in his hand and rushes past Shirogane without a word to Kaede, still debating how to handle removing the arrow. Momota looks over it with a grimace before saying, “Shirogane, hold this for a second,” and blindly reaches backwards for her to take the antidote from him.

“Ah, okay,” she says even as she becomes very aware Momota has no interest in listening to her response.

He’s already returned to Kaede, saying, “Here, take my hand, and squeeze as fucking hard as you want. And I’ll… I’ll get it in one pull, alright?”

Kaede freezes for a second at his words before stiffly nodding. She takes his outstretched hand and clenches her jaw as she says, “Don’t count it down, just do it.”

“Right,” Momota says, focusing his attention on the arrow. He takes a second to examine it, letting out a deep breath before taking a firm hold of the arrow’s shaft. Kaede lets out a sharp hiss, and Shirogane turns away again, only hearing Kaede’s strangled howl of pain and seeing the arrow roll on the ground in the corner of her vision after Momota throws it to the side.

Kaede’s breathing is ragged, and Momota tears off his coat to press it to Kaede’s leg. Without looking back, he barks, “Shirogane—give me the antidote and go get bandages or something!”

“Y-Yes,” she says, taking the opportunity to shove the bottle back into his hands and scramble to the exit of the room. 

As she leaves, she catches Momota saying, “I know this fucking sucks, but we have to be fast. I don’t know how much time Ouma ha—”

Kaede’s still breathing hard, but she manages to bite out, “Do you think there’s any way you’re actually going to be able to give him the antidote?”

“I’m not gonna fucking give up, if that’s what you’re—” Momota tears his gaze away from Kaede to Shirogane still idling by the door. “Shirogane, hurry the fuck up!”

“R-Right!” she stammers again, this time speeding away to her best guess of where they would keep bandages in the school. 

Her trip is uninterrupted as she hurries down the stairs to Hoshi’s lab for all the supplies she thinks might be necessary and back up again. On her way, she passes Momota, breathing heavily and looking pale as he practically flies down the stairs. He doesn’t acknowledge her presence at all, and Shirogane pauses for a second in his wake, vaguely wondering if she should still bring the supplies in her hands up to Kaede. 

Shirogane stares after him and thinks about the Flashback Light as she clenches her jaw. No, she decides, pausing here would do little to help them move forward to whatever comes next. 

She moves at a light jog the rest of the way and finds Kaede where she left her, though now with Momota’s bloody jacket awkwardly tied around her shin and a sour expression on her face.

“Ah, Akamatsu-san,” she says meekly, shrinking slightly under Kaede’s gaze when she turns to her. “I, um, I ran down to Hoshi-kun’s lab, and I think this stuff is mostly for sports injuries, but there’s disinfectant, and—”

“Check on Tenko-san first,” Kaede says. 

“Oh, um, okay,” Shirogane says, tentatively putting down her supplies at Kaede’s side before scurrying to Tenko still unconscious on the opposing armchair. She spies her chest rising and falling in slight movements, and Shirogane pauses for a second before placing two of her fingers on Tenko’s neck to find her pulse. “She… seems fine.”

Kaede lets out a sigh. “That’s good at least. I noticed some, um,” Shirogane glances back to see Kaede squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head. “There’re some weird chemicals on the table.”

Shirogane blinks at her before shifting her focus to a few stray, out of place bottles. “You think someone made something to knock her out?”

“I think Harukawa-san made her something,” Kaede says. “Earlier, you said Tenko-san was going up to the fifth floor, right? So she told you, and then… maybe Harukawa-san followed her or something—I don’t know.”

“Ah, I suppose,” Shirogane says. “All I know is that she took one of the electrohammers, and told Hoshi-kun and me that she would be right back… but then when she didn’t return, I just assumed she had gone to visit you and Ouma-kun.”

“She didn’t,” Kaede snaps. 

Shirogane’s eyes flicker to the ground. “Oh, well, I suppose not…”

Kaede falters for a moment and reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Sorry—I know it’s not your fault, I just,” she slumps back in her chair, letting out a humorless laugh as her gaze wanders the ceiling. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been angrier in my life.”

“Well, you were shot with a crossbow,” Shirogane says. “I plainly think that would make anyone pretty angry. Oh, and do you want me to treat your wounds now or…?”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “I mean as long as you’re not…” her gaze hardens as she looks at Shirogane, searching for something in her meek expression. “You—you know I’m not the mastermind, right?”

“I,” Shirogane hugs herself as she stares at the floor. “I don’t really know.”

Kaede sighs again. “I guess that’s fair. You can go if you want—I’m already hopped up on painkillers, so I can probably handle it myself.”

“Um, no, I’ll stay,” Shirogane says offering her a small smile. “Even if my only reason for staying is that I’m a little afraid Momota-kun might yell at me again. And also scenes where someone helps the hero recover from battle are usually pretty good, at least in my opinion. Well, sometimes they’re boring, too, but it depends on the series.”

Kaede smiles wryly. “I don’t think I’m much of a hero, but I would appreciate your help, Shirogane-san.”

Shirogane moves to kneel beside her and cautiously unties Momota’s ruined jacket from around Kaede’s leg to begin treating the rather nasty looking arrow wound. The blood staining it affects her little, and rather, it’s the odd intimacy of the situation that makes her fidget slightly with discomfort. However, Kaede’s stiff expression and gaze firmly focused on Tenko’s unconscious form show just how uninterested in small talk the other girl is.

Time passes silently with the exception of the occasional hiss from Kaede or the slight tick of the overly elaborate clock decorating the room. Too much time passes, and as Shirogane finally finishes applying clean bandages, Kaede says, “Kaito should have been back by now.”

Shirogane jerks her head to blink up at her. “Huh? Did he say he was going to come back?”

“No,” Kaede says. “But he would have come back to tell us what happened.”

“Well, um,” Shirogane says, sitting back and pulling her knees to her chest. “Maybe he saved Ouma-kun and is doing what we’re doing in his room?”

Kaede’s eyes flicker to her briefly and then away again as she tugs at her hat. “Shirogane-san,” she says. “When Ouma-kun stayed behind, he knew he was volunteering to die—the only person who thinks there’s a possibility he’s not dead is Kaito.”

“Oh,” Shirogane says, letting her gaze fall to the floor. “Well, I…” she hugs her knees. “I don’t know what to say, but… I guess this means we’ll survive the time limit, even if it’s plainly in one of the worst possible ways.”

Kaede shifts slightly in her chair, still looking somewhere else as she bites the inside of her cheek. “Yeah,” she says. “I guess it does.”

They wait longer yet in Saihara’s lab, unsure if anything will actually change. Shirogane finds herself drifting in and out of consciousness when Tenko finally begins to stir. Kaede immediately tries to lift herself out of her chair before wincing at shifting her leg, and Shirogane shuffles to her feet with a quick, “I-I’ll check on her,” to assure the other girl.

Tenko rubs at her eyes and blinks confusedly as Shirogane hovers over her, gently saying, “Chabashira-san? Are you alright?”

Tenko looks up at her with almost no recognition for a moment before glancing around the room, mumbling, “Tenko is… where is this…?”

“We’re in Saihara-kun’s lab,” Shirogane answers. “We found you passed out outside the door and brought you here.”

“‘We?’” Tenko asks.

Shirogane shifts slightly to ensure Kaede is in Tenko’s vision as she continues. “Um, me, Momota-kun, and Akamatsu-san.”

Tenko doesn’t seem to hear her and instead simply blinks at Kaede. “Kaede-san, why are you here? Weren’t you and Ouma-san—”

“I’ll explain later,” Kaede says. “But what happened to you?”

“Tenko was,” she begins before her eyes briefly dart up to Shirogane and she bites her lip. “Tenko can’t remember. Sorry,” she cradles her head in her hands. “Her head is a mess, but… she’ll try to remember later.”

“Maybe in the morning?” Shirogane suggests with a pointed glance to the clock. “It’s, uh, getting to be pretty late, and, well,” she wraps her arms around herself protectively. “I think we’re going to have to do an investigation and trial tomorrow.”

Tenko stares at her in horror before looking to Kaede for confirmation. “What?” 

Kaede takes a deep breath. “Shirogane-san is right, we need to get some rest now—I’ll tell you what happened on the way back to the dorms.”

Tenko’s mouth pulls into a nervous frown, but she agrees without protest. 

Tenko stumbles the first few steps but ultimately can walk on her own while Shirogane supports Kaede. The three girls make their way gingerly back down to the dorms, Kaede’s full story of the horrors from earlier that night guiding them the whole way.

At the dorms, Kaede and Tenko split off from her to spend the night in Tenko’s room, and Shirogane smiles gently as she waves them goodbye. There’s no question in her mind that the two of them are going to discuss things they think she shouldn’t hear for whatever reason. Her smile doesn’t falter, though, as she reasons to herself that it will all come out into the open when it’s important—the truth has a way of doing that, after all. 

They close the door and give Shirogane a moment to stand in the center of the dorms, simply taking in all of empty rooms surrounding her. There’s been another murder, and come tomorrow, only five of the sixteen rooms should have occupants. The road to this point has been chaotic, but Shirogane can only smile faintly as she thinks that she managed to make it this far unscathed, unlike so many of the others. But she also thinks that the end is coming soon, and she has few doubts her life will end before it. 

Shirogane goes to bed that night with her same gentle smile still glued to her plain face.

-

Monokuma finishes his morning announcement with a reminder that the time limit will be ending in two hours.

Shirogane lets out a deep breath as she exits her room and stops in her tracks at seeing the dormitory in a surprisingly lively state. Shouting immediately greets her when she exits her room as her remaining four classmates all seem in a panic to rush outside of the building.

Hoshi’s in the back and moving the slowest, and Shirogane gravitates towards him, asking, “What’s going on?” as they swarm for the doors. 

“Don’t know,” he says, still hobbling forward. “But there’s an Exisal outside.”

Shirogane’s head snaps to the glass doors and makes out the distinct blur of an Exisal on the other side. “Why is there—”

“Maki!” Momota shouts as he shoves the doors open. “Harumaki!”

Kaede’s doing her best to run after him, and Tenko keeps herself to her side, prepared to catch her at the slightest slip up. Shirogane makes out her hissing, “What the hell is she doing here?” as Kaede charges after them.

Shirogane has little idea exactly what is happening but catches up quickly enough to see the Exisal having come to a stop a little ways from the dorm, the others still jogging towards it in a loose mob.

Momota’s the closest to it, saying, “Harumaki, what are you—why are you here?” as he approaches.

Shirogane edges closer as the Exisal bends its legs to lower its cockpit to the ground. Momota stand only about a foot from it while the others more cautiously stay back, and Shirogane doesn’t miss the way Tenko shields Kaede even as the other girl seems to insist on inching forward.

Shirogane wrings her hands nervously and hears Hoshi speak up from beside her, asking, “what the hell is happening?”

“Uh,” she says. “I think something… really bad.”

The door to the Exisal’s cockpit rises open, and Maki remains seated inside, wearing her same cold expression as if she was simply a bit irritated at too many people saying good morning to her. Her eyes flicker over everyone assembled before her from the nervous and confused Shirogane, to Kaede practically seething, and finally landing on Momota staring up at her with pure worry. “I needed to get some supplies,” she says to him alone. “I thought I brought enough with me last night, but it turns out I needed more.”

“Supplies for what!?” Kaede snaps. “What—is Ouma-kun not dead enough for you?”

Maki’s gaze wavers to her for a second before shifting back to Momota. “If anyone actually cares to listen to what I have to say, I simply needed some more cleaning supplies. If my estimate is correct, I’ll only need about an hour more before the hanger can be explored again.”

“What does that mean?” Tenko asks softly. 

“That I want to avoid a trial as much as anyone else,” Maki says, voice even. “Part of being an assassin is properly disposing of your target’s body after eliminating them.”

Momota isn’t facing her, but Shirogane can imagine the pained expression on his face as he speaks. “You… you got rid of Ouma’s body.”

“I will have soon,” she says. “If there isn’t a body, then Monokuma can’t hold a trial.”

“This is disturbed,” Kaede hisses. “You’re just—you’re just expecting us to let you get away with brutally killing someone?”

Maki doesn’t so much as flinch at her words, calmly replying, “I suppose your other option is to go down to the hanger and force a trial in order to kill me.” She shakes her head. “I can’t control what choice you’ll make, but I already made my decision and I do not regret it.”

“But,” Shirogane says. “Ouma-kun was innocent, wasn’t he? Since Akamatsu-san’s the…” she looks to Kaede and feels the words die in her throat.

“I know,” Maki says. 

“Then,” Tenko says. “Why did you kill Ouma-san?”

Maki pauses, looking over them before reaching for the Exisal’s controls, causing it to rise back up to its full height. “I’m not here to answer questions,” she says. “I just need to end this.”

Maki reaches up to pull down the cover to the Exisal’s cockpit, and Shirogane barely hears Momota say, “Maki…” before she disappears from view.

He calls after her again as the Exisal stomps off away from them. It doesn’t pause for a moment in its descent back towards the hanger, and Momota runs both his hands through his hair as he curses to himself. “Fuck—fuck, fuck, fuck…”

Kaede trips on her first step past Tenko towards him, causing the other girl to lurch forward to catch her. Kaede groans as she steadies herself, muttering to Tenko, “I’m okay—I’m okay. We need to hurry.”

Hoshi regards her warily. “Hurry where?”

“To the hanger,” Kaede says. “If we want to stop Harukawa-san, we have to—”

“What!?” Momota pivots to face them. “You—you want a fucking trial!?”

Everyone goes silent for a moment, and his voice seems to echo off the walls of the dome. Then—Kaede clenches her fists as she pushes herself off of Tenko to stand on her own, taking a staggering step towards him. “I want,” she says. “To do something about the person who murdered one of our friends right in front of us.”

“Since when?” he says. “Since which fucking murder have you wanted to see someone get executed?”

“I want—I want,” Kaede throws her hands in the air. “I want justice—”

“Bullshit,” Momota says, taking a step towards her. “You want revenge—what happened last night was fucking horrible, but killing Maki isn’t going to do a damn thing about it.”

“It’ll stop the time limit from killing _all_ of us,” Kaede says. “And we’ll all get to stop living in fear of an assassin!”

Tenko hurries to Kaede’s side, saying, “Kaede-san, please calm down.”

Momota says, “So you admit it! You do just want her dead!”

“She tried to kill me!” Kaede shouts. “You saw her try to kill me twice, and you’re still defending her!? How can you still be stuck on this stupid idea that she’s harmless—you were literally there, and—”

“So you were right!” he yells. “You were fucking right about her from day one—are you happy? Is that how you’re gonna make yourself feel good about sending her to her fucking death!?”

“This isn’t about me! This is about Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun—”

Momota lets out a hollow laugh. “Really? You really want me to buy that you give a shit about Ouma?”

“Of course I care about him,” Kaede says. “And you actually had me thinking that you did, too—but that was obviously all a lie since you’re defending his killer.”

Shirogane hears Hoshi let out a quiet sigh as he mumbles to himself, “this is getting out of hand…”

She can only silently nod in agreement as Momota says, “The hell are you saying? Do you honestly think I’m happy about what the hell is going on?”

Kaede scoffs. “I think that Ouma-kun is dead, and you’re obviously fine with it since your solution is to just—I don’t know—say ‘oh well’ and move on with our lives.”

“So because I don’t want to _murder_ Maki, I don’t care about Ouma,” Momota says. “That’s what you’re saying.”

“All I’m saying is what’s true,” Kaede says. “Harukawa-san’s a killer, but you’re so obsessed with this weird image of her that you made up that you’re willing to let us all die. The fact that we’re even having this conversation instead of trying to find the _fucking_ remains of Ouma-kun’s body means that you don’t care about any of us and you definitely didn’t care about Ouma-kun.”

Momota looks absolutely furious but his voice is shockingly quiet as he responds. “You know what, Akamatsu—I guess I did make a mistake with Maki, but I also made a mistake with you. You’re the pettiest, most hypocritical, most vindictive person I have ever fucking met. And—and,” his hands clench and unclench into fists. “And I guess I made a mistake listening to Ouma last night, too.”

Kaede narrows her eyes dangerously. “So you wish you saved him instead?”

“I know I should have,” he says. “Because maybe Ouma was a brat, but he would never be so fucking excited that he gets to kill someone. Because he wasn’t a fucking murderer. And just,” he lets out a humorless laugh. “Akamatsu—haven’t you killed enough people already?”

There’s a brief moment of silence as the two stare at each other before Kaede takes one stride towards Momota. Shirogane physically flinches as the sound of her palm striking him across the face echoes around them. Momota reels back a step and looks at her only briefly in shock. He hesitates for one long second before raising his fist and closing the distance between them.

Shirogane’s fairly certain he only got one punch in, and the two are physically grabbing at each other to tear at each other’s clothes or get in another hit even with Tenko speeding in to try and force them apart. Shirogane holds her hands close to her mouth in horror, and the same awful music that sounded like hell the first time the time limit approached begins to start up again. Part of her thinks it’s almost the perfect soundtrack to the sight of two horribly injured people trying to tear each other apart.

Over the din, Tenko screams, “Stop! Both of you stop!” 

She manages to get in a good enough shove to send them both back a few paces. It’s enough that Kaede falls to her knees with a hiss of pain while Momota grabs at his stomach and clenches his jaw. Tenko stays where she is between them and addresses both of them again as she says, “Everyone is going to stop fighting right now!”

Momota punctuates her statement by spitting out blood that hits the ground with far too loud a splatter. He wipes away a bit of blood dripping at his mouth, and the gesture seems to double as a convenient way to muffle one of his now routine coughs. “Fine,” he chokes out. “Then let’s stop fighting and figure out what the fuck we’re going to do.”

“We’re going,” Kaede says, clutching the old wound on her arm as she pushes herself back up to her feet despite the obvious pain it brings her. “To the hanger to find Ouma-kun’s body, and then have a trial. That is what we are going to do.”

Momota shakes his head, hand still to his mouth, though seemingly recovered. “You need three people, so let’s fucking vote.”

“Vote?” Kaede practically spits. “On what? Whether just Harukawa-san dies or we all die?”

“On whether we’re going to keep playing Monokuma’s fucking game and kill someone else,” he says. He pauses, shifting to look over all of them. “Chabashira, Hoshi, Shirogane—you have to make a decision right now.”

“W-What?” Shirogane stammers. “We’re deciding?”

Hoshi stares at the ground as he speaks. “If two of us agree with Akamatsu, we do the trial and Harukawa dies. If two of us don’t… we let the time limit run out and all die.”

“Why?” Tenko says. “Why are you trying to divide us or force us to—”

“Because there’s fucking nothing else for us to do,” Momota says before glaring at Kaede. “And I personally would rather die than keep being a part of this sick game—but obviously not all of us think that way.”

Kaede doesn’t react to his words other than to say, “I’m going to the hanger, and I’m going to make sure my friends live. Who’s coming with me?”

If it wasn’t for Monokuma’s horrible song playing around them, Shirogane thinks the dead quiet that would have accompanied Momota and Kaede’s stares might have caused her to faint. She brings her hands to her heart. “I,” she says. “I don’t—”

“Not going,” Hoshi says. 

Kaede whips towards him. “What?”

Hoshi just sighs as he pulls his hat down. “I don’t… care about justice or vengeance—it all just feels the same to me. Don’t really know Harukawa or Ouma either, but… this feels like a trap.” He shakes his head. “Tired of trials and doing what Monokuma wants. Maybe the time limit will kill us, maybe not, but I’m with Momota—done with playing this game.”

“Hoshi-kun?” Shirogane says.

“Chabashira, Shirogane,” he continues. “You guys can… trust Akamatsu and go with her if you want, start the trial, too, but… I’m done.”

“Hoshi-san,” Tenko says, her voice full of a raw sympathy. 

“That’s just one vote,” Kaede says hurriedly, cutting the moment short. “Tenko-san, you’re coming, right?”

Tenko blinks at her. “Tenko—”

“Chabashira,” Momota says. “You said you didn’t want to keep living if it meant killing people—that’s exactly what the fuck is happening right now. If you go—”

“Then we don’t all just die meaningless deaths,” Kaede bites back. “Harukawa-san is going to die either way—the only question is if we want to throw our lives away with her.”

Tenko looks between them, seemingly at a loss for words when Shirogane decides now is the best time to speak up, lest she becomes the center of a potential tie breaking vote. “Um,” she says. “I-I think I know what I want to do. I,” her eyes dart to Hoshi and then away again. “I know there’s nothing left for us, but I still want to live. Maybe it’s pointless, but I plainly don’t want to die yet.”

Momota lets out a deep breath. “Fine—that’s fine,” he says, though his tone doesn’t seem to agree with his words. “Just means—Chabashira,” he nods at her, “it’s your call.”

“A-Also,” Shirogane quickly adds. “Not to pressure you into making a decision, but I’m starting to worry about how much time we have left. Especially if Harukawa-san did… something to make the body harder to find.”

Tenko glances back at her before saying to herself, “Right—r-right.”

“So… you’re coming?” Kaede says. Tenko jolts to stare at her but simply bites her lip in response. Kaede sighs as she staggers her way awkwardly towards the other girl. “Tenko-san, I know how you feel—obviously in any other situation doing a trial voluntarily would be out of the question. But this is something we have to do for everyone’s sake, especially Ouma-kun’s.” Neither Kaede nor Tenko are looking at him, but Shirogane doesn’t miss the way Momota rolls his eyes at Kaede’s words. “After everything that’s happened, we can’t just give up here—I… I refuse to just give up here, and you should, too.”

Tenko pauses, still clearly unsure of the situation. She hesitates a second longer before saying, “If… Ouma-san was killed in the hanger we’ll probably need an electrohammer to reach him.”

Kaede breaks out in a smile and pulls Tenko into a hug that she seems just a touch uncomfortable returning. Shirogane still smiles slightly at the gesture even though it’s an almost horrifically morbid celebration. Behind them, Momota just sighs as he stomps around them, still brushing blood from his haggard face. Kaede’s saying something about how she knew she could count on Tenko, but all Shirogane hears is Momota mumbling, “this isn’t over yet,” to himself as he passes her.

Hoshi seems to hear it to and lets his eyes trail after his retreating form as he speaks. “So, Shirogane, you… trust Akamatsu?”

“Um,” she says. “Not really. I mean she is… you know.”

“All of us should know,” he says. “But I guess that didn’t matter.”

Shirogane sighs. “I know, I know—you’re right, this probably is a trap… but I just really don’t want to die.”

“And no one can blame you for that,” Hoshi says finally looking up at her. “Done trying to convince people to die. If you want one of the electrohammers, I won’t try to stop you—you can tell that to Chabashira or Akamatsu, too.”

“Oh,” she says. “Alright—I guess I’ll… do that. Thank you, Hoshi-kun.”

He shrugs in response, saying, “Don’t mention it,” before walking back off to the dorms.

When Kaede and Tenko seem to have some interest in her again, Shirogane informs them of what Hoshi told her, and Tenko volunteers to grab one from her room. She’s alone with Kaede for perhaps a minute or two at most but feels painfully awkward as their only conversation is Kaede saying, “Thanks for coming, too, Shirogane-san.”

Kaede offers her a supportive smile, but Shirogane’s eyes immediately focus on her disheveled clothes and what looks like the start of a nasty bruise blooming on her cheek. “Ah, it’s fine,” she says to the ground. “It’s plainly nothing, you know?”

Tenko returns quickly, one electrohammer weighed in her hands. As she jogs over, she informs them, “Two of the other hammers were missing. Tenko took one last night that she supposes wasn’t returned.”

“And Momota-kun probably took the other last night,” Kaede says. She sighs and barely suppresses a wince as she takes her first step towards the hanger. “Really the only thing we’re missing in this case is his testimony from when he went to try to talk to Harukawa-san alone.”

“I have a feeling Momota-kun might not be, uh,” Shirogane says. “Particularly inclined to give it right now.”

“No, but it’s fine,” Kaede says, still moving forward. “It’s not like it changes anything.”

They make the walk to the hanger with little other conversation, and Monokuma’s horrible song seems even louder than ever as they finally approach their destination. 

There are slight drops and streaks of blood lining their path through the machinery bay’s twisting halls, and Shirogane doesn’t miss the way Kaede clenches her jaw at their first sighting of them. Even though Monokuma’s music sounds even more demented in the echoing halls, Shirogane still can’t help but breathe out, “Oh God… poor Ouma-kun…”

Kaede stiffens slightly at her words, only acknowledging them with a strained nod in her direction. Tenko doesn’t respond at all.

The barrier in front of the hanger remains as passive as ever, and Shirogane takes a deep breath to steel herself for whatever horrible sight she knows is awaiting them on the other side. Tenko steps in front of them, readying the electrohammer in her hands for a moment before crashing the head of it into the barrier with one great swing. The effect is immediate, and the barrier fizzles to nothing before their very eyes.

“There,” Tenko says, letting out a nervous breath. “Harukawa-san should still be inside, but…” she shifts, unsure how to appropriately finish her thought. “Harukawa-san is going to be inside.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says taking a step forward. “Yeah, she is.”

They share one final look before Tenko tosses the used electrohammer aside to pull up on the hanger’s shutter with both hands.

A sharp scent of chemicals immediately greets them, but Shirogane can focus little on it due to the sight before her of an Exisal spinning to face them. Maki’s voice echoes out from it saying, “You—”

Tenko screams, bringing her hands to her mouth in sheer horror, and Shirogane whips her head to follow her gaze to the now closed hydraulic press, a few dark smears of blood encrusted on it despite the obvious attempts to clean them off. 

She hears Kaede mutter in sheer disbelief, “what the hell…” and then Monokuma’s song cuts off. 

“A body has been discovered!” echoes through the room. “After some time has passed, a class trial will be held!”

Maki's sigh sounds weirdly distorted coming from inside the Exisal as she says, “Seems like I didn’t do a good enough job for Monokuma’s tastes. Oh well, this still isn’t over yet.”

“Wh-What!?” Kaede shouts, her composure coming back to her out of sheer rage. “Y-You crushed him to death, and—”

“And it’s not over,” Maki says. “Where’s Momota—I think I should speak to him before the trial.”

Very quietly, Shirogane stammers, “H-He’s in the dorms, I think…”

“And what the hell are you going to say to him?” Kaede hisses. “Are you going to try and poison him some more about how brutally murdering one of our friends is fine when—where are you going!?”

She screams the last part as the Exisal begins to unceremoniously exit the room. Kaede stares after it, nearly shaking with fury. 

Shirogane looks to Tenko to try and get some guidance for how to react, but the other girl seems to be immobilized by horror as her eyes remain locked on the hydraulic press. Shirogane glances back to Kaede, and—seeing no other option in how to proceed—hesitantly says, “U-Uh, should we… check the Monokuma File?”

“There’s no need,” Kaede says, voice deadly cold. “We already know what happened here.” She begins to walk back out of the room. “All we need to do now is wait for the trial and vote.”

Her words make Shirogane feel weirdly helpless, and she calls after her, “You’re not going to investigate?”

Kaede’s stomping steps echoing off the metal floor is her only answer. Tenko seems to finally register what’s happening as she says, “Kaede-san?”

She takes one step after her before Shirogane quickly says, “Uh, Chabashira-san, I-I know you want to check on Akamatsu-san, but…” she looks back over the crime scene before them. “I… don’t really know what happened and want to investigate—I,” she takes a deep breath to steady herself. “I plainly want to know why this happened—why Ouma-kun… died the way he did.”

Tenko hesitates. “Shirogane-san, you,” her eyes flicker back to the press before forcing herself to look away. “You should if that’s what you need to do.”

“I know, but,” she lets out a self deprecating laugh. “I-I say that, but I’m also pretty plainly freaked out to be here alone. So, will you help? A-At least just for a little while?”

Tenko looks between her and the exit and back again before she finally says, “Oh… okay. Tenko will help investigate.”

Shirogane sighs in relief. “Thank you so much. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if you said no.”

Tenko tries to smile at her, but the expression only seems to show just how pained she is. “Tenko is… happy to help.”

“Alright,” Shirogane says. “So I—I guess we should start with the Monokuma File?”

Tenko nods, still wearing her strained smile as she pulls her monopad from her pocket. Shirogane does the same, and it seems to take a second before flicking to life with information that Ouma Kokichi, the Ultimate Supreme Leader is the victim this time. His time of death was between twelve-forty and two-forty last night, and his exact cause of death is unknown due to the current state of his body.

Shirogane reads that last part again, biting her lip as she glances back towards the press. “So, um, should we try raising the press?”

Tenko pales at her words, looking almost physically ill as she tries to search for any reason as to why they shouldn’t. “Tenko thinks, um—T-Tenko thinks maybe we should look around for o-other clues first. Like…” her eyes dart around the room, and she swallows before striding over to kneel in front of the press and pick up what Shirogane notices are a variety of industrial cleaning supplies lined in front of it. “Like these.”

“Oh,” Shirogane walks over to her, crouching at her side. “Are these what Harukawa-san used to try and, uh, hide what happened?”

“That’s,” she lets out another trembling breath. “That’s what Tenko thinks. Tenko also thinks that’s why Harukawa-san crushed Ouma-san’s body. Or… or at least she hopes Ouma-san was dead before he…”

She trails off, clearly too disturbed by the line of thought to continue it. “Well,” Shirogane says. “I think that things like this usually have sensors that prevent living people from being hurt, right? Um,” she stands, glancing around the room. “I remember there was a warning sign somewhere around here that said something about it stopping automatically if it detects a living person is underneath…”

“So Ouma-san was dead beforehand,” Tenko says, nodding to herself. “That’s… that’s good…” her eyes seem to fixate on the smears of blood still lingering on the press. “Tenko just—she just really hopes he didn’t suffer.”

“Um,” Shirogane says, still wandering around the room. “Harukawa-san had a crossbow, right? Or at least, Akamatsu-san definitely got shot with an arrow. But in any case, if she wanted to kill him, she’d have just shot him, right?”

“Right,” Tenko says as she shakily gets back on to her feet. “Right… Let’s just—let’s just keep looking for clues.”

Shirogane nods as she continues to look around. “I guess we should probably raise the—oh!” she rushes over to the cable connecting the press to its controls, specifically a section of it that looks like it was torn and smashed a few times over.

“Shirogane-san?” Tenko says, rushing over to her. “What’s… is that…”

Shirogane walks over to inspect it further. “It looks like one of the Exisals stepped on it maybe? I guess Harukawa-san really wanted to make sure we couldn’t find the body…”

Tenko’s mouth is a thin line as she silently examines the tear in the cable herself. “Maybe she did…” Tenko sighs and shakes her head. “Tenko just—Tenko doesn’t know about all of this.”

“About all of what?” Shirogane asks. “The investigation?”

Tenko nods. “Tenko knows she agreed to come here, but,” she bites her lip. “She wonders if that was the right choice because… she also doesn’t think Momota-san was completely wrong. Kaede-san… wanted us to discover Ouma-san’s body because she wanted revenge.”

Shirogane blinks at her. “W-What?”

“Tenko doesn’t know if she should be saying this, but,” she crosses her arms protectively. “Last night, Kaede-san told Tenko why she stayed in the hanger with Ouma-san. Apparently neither of them believed the time limit was real, so…”

She doesn’t finish, and Shirogane picks up her line of thought, “So when Akamatsu-san was talking about us surviving the time limit, she—she didn’t actually think it would do anything? So she plainly—”

“Tenko doesn’t know,” she says quickly. “Tenko really wants to believe in Kaede-san, and Tenko did decide to come here, too, but,” she presses the palms of her hands to her eyes. “Tenko doesn’t know anymore.”

Shirogane takes a step towards her, hesitantly reaching out one hand to give her arm an encouraging squeeze. “I… I plainly don’t know either. I’ve been kinda lost since everything started, but… I think we already made our choice, so the only thing to do is to… just keep doing it, right? Everyone else has already made up their minds, so I guess it’s up to us to just try and… keep reaching out for the truth.”

Tenko looks to her, still obviously distraught. “Is that what we’re doing here?”

“I’m not sure,” she says. “But maybe if we convince ourselves it is, then it will be a little easier to get through. And, maybe it’s depressing, but I think that’s all we can hope for right now. And… and even if it’s silly, I’m still not quite ready to give up on hope.”

Tenko nods to herself again. “Right—right, Tenko will stay focused. What… should she focus on?”

“Oh, um,” Shirogane says, a bit caught off guard by the question. “Well, Akamatsu-san told you what happened last night, so was there anything in her story that might give us a clue about where to look or maybe anything that seemed off?”

Tenko frowns at the question. “Tenko doesn’t think anything seemed—wait, there was one thing that concerned Tenko. Uh,” she fidgets, suddenly looking very self-conscious. “Tenko may have left Kiibo with Kaede-san, and she doesn’t think Kaede-san still had him with her last night.”

“So he’s still here?”

“Tenko thinks he should be,” she says, scanning the room.

She takes a step towards what Shirogane thinks looks a bit like it was once an improvised campsite. There’s junk food piled in a corner that looks relatively untouched, but they don’t catch her attention as much as the shredded sleeping bag and a few notebooks torn to pieces. The occasional splashes of blood decorating the items also do little to alleviate the general sense of dread the scene radiates. Tenko still walks through it, and seems to take one deep breath before kneeling down to begin rummaging through the mess. 

“Shirogane-san,” she says. “Would you mind checking the bathroom while Tenko looks here?”

“Oh, of course,” she says. Though the remaining Exisals in the hanger are either defunct or missing an occupant, having to circle closer to them to get around Tenko, still makes Shirogane feel slightly nervous. But she supposes they were designed to intimidate, and they serve their job well enough.

She pushes open the bathroom door and is immediately hit by an even stronger odor of chemicals. It’s almost unbearable, and Shirogane places her hand over her mouth and nose to fruitlessly deter some of the sick stench. 

There are more bottles of cleaning supplies she sees scattered around the room, though all of them seem to be empty. However, all of the bottles appear to be plastic and thoroughly in one piece, yet shining pieces of broken glass catch her eye, as does the strange puddle they’re lying in. 

She takes a brief moment to prepare herself before crouching down to inspect it. Among the remains, there is a rather thick piece that seems to have a label still attached to it. Fearful of whatever the liquid it’s drenched in might be, Shirogane covers her hand with the edge of her sleeve before she tentatively flips the shard before her over to be able to read the label. It’s thankfully still legible, though slightly covered in blood, and Shirogane immediately recognizes it as the instructions for the antidote she remembers Momota rattling off last night.

She frowns at it slightly, thinking this must be the tangible proof of how well Momota’s plan to deliver the antidote went. Also catching her attention is a black bag shoved against the far wall. Carefully stepping over the puddle, Shirogane approaches it and opens it with little fanfare. 

Inside is what Shirogane pieces together are parts of a deconstructed crossbow, a few arrows—one of which she notices is thickly covered in blood. But what catches her attention the most is a knife shining when the light catches the few parts of it not coated in dried blood. She carefully grips its handle to pull it out of the bag and notices the very prominent and rather nasty looking serrations on the blade. 

Shirogane gingerly puts it down as if she were afraid it would spring to life and attack her somehow before she returns to rummaging through the bag. She looks again through the arrows, but still only finds one bloody one. She frowns as she decides the bag has no more clues and can’t help but pace as she tries to think over what her findings mean. 

She doesn’t pay too much attention to her surroundings as she does so until on one stride she strays a bit too close to the sink. It’s perhaps the center of the sick chemical smell rising from the room, and Shirogane notices a few rags that she assumes were dyed red in their attempts to wipe blood away. It’s morbid curiosity that drives her closer even as the pungent smell seems to try and drive her away. Very hesitantly, she reaches down to lift one of the rags still heavy with bloody water from the night before as arms length. 

The smell seems to intensify in strength somehow at the gesture, and it takes all of Shirogane’s metal fortitude to settle it back down in a slightly different spot instead of flinging it across the room in horror. However, as she does so, she notices something else that had been underneath it sticking to the bowl of the sink.

With her hand pressed firmly over her nose to take in as little of the smell as possible, she reaches in to grab what seems like a small piece of some sort of cloth. It reeks as badly as the washcloth had, but Shirogane forces herself to bring it closer to get a better look at it. She rubs it between her fingers and registers that it, too, was probably once a white-ish color before being stained a pale red. 

She still isn’t sure what to think of it when she hears Tenko’s voice call out, “Shirogane-san! Tenko—Tenko thinks there’s something wrong with Kiibo-san!”

“Coming!” she yells, and after a painful moment of indecision, she pockets the small piece of cloth while internally bemoaning its terrible smell and how badly it will stain the inside of her jacket pocket. 

Tenko’s standing in the middle of the destroyed campsite, furiously fiddling with the buttons on a monopad. Without looking up at her, Tenko says, “Tenko found Kiibo-san, but he isn’t responding to anything.”

Shirogane jogs the last few steps over to her, asking, “Is he broken?”

“Tenko doesn’t know,” she says. “The monopad appears undamaged, but he still won’t turn on.”

“He’s—he’s not…”

“No,” Tenko says quickly. “He—he is not. Tenko refuses to believe that anyone would hurt Kiibo-san in his current state. Doing so would just be so pointlessly cruel…”

“Ah,” Shirogane says. “About… pointless cruelty, I think that might not be out of the question.”

Tenko turns to her in horror, and Shirogane describes her findings in the bathroom, punctuating it with, “A-And because there was only one arrow that was bloody… it seems pretty plain that Harukawa-san probably killed him with the knife.”

Tenko clenches her jaw and just shakes her head at the news as if she could just shake away the potential truth of her words altogether. “Why?” she says. “Just… why would anyone do something like this?”

“I don’t know, but,” Shirogane says. “I guess that’s what we’re here to find out. Speaking of which, did you find anything else while you were looking for Kiibo-kun?”

Tenko pauses, needing more time to recover before answering. Finally she lets out a sigh, and shakily says, “T-Tenko found two used electrohammers. Here,” she shoves Kiibo into her pocket and walks closer to the entrance of the hanger. Lying on the ground are two seemingly depowered electrohammers unceremoniously shuffled on top of each other.

“Okay,” Shirogane says. “So, um, one of these was the one you took last night that Harukawa-san stole, and the other was probably Momota-kun? But if they’re both in the hanger, does that mean Momota-kun got in last night?”

Tenko presses her lips into a thin line. “Momota-san,” she says after a lengthy pause. “Is probably not going to tell us what happened.”

“Wait,” Shirogane says. “If Momota-kun got in the hanger, you don’t think it’s possible that—”

“No,” Tenko says sharply. “Momota-san—he,” she shifts, irritated with the question in a way she can’t quite put into words. “He’s… he’s awful, but after what happened in Iruma-san’s virtual world, Tenko knows he would not hurt Ouma-san. She—she just knows.”

“Ah,” Shirogane says, wringing her hands. “If you say so…”

Tenko stares hard at her for a moment but remains silent on the matter. Instead, she says, “Tenko doesn’t know what else to investigate, or if anything we found even meant anything. As soon as we get to the trial, Kaede-san’s just going to try and call a vote, and… maybe just getting it over with _is_ better than dragging everything out like last time.”

“Maybe that’s right,” Shirogane says. “But I just—I know I’m not that assertive in trials or, well, at any time really, but I just plainly want to know why things happened the way they did.” She sighs. “And maybe we’ll still just vote for Harukawa-san, but I guess part of me just won’t be satisfied until all the mysteries are solved.”

“Tenko… doesn’t know about,” she says. “Tenko does wish everyone would stop keeping secrets, but…” she shakes her head. “With the way everyone’s acting, Tenko doesn’t think that’s possible. Everyone working together just—Tenko just doesn’t think it’s possible right now.”

“O-Oh,” Shirogane says. “Well, maybe I could try talking to Akamatsu-san beforehand, even if… she kinda scares me.”

Tenko bites her lip. “Do you think… do you think she’s a Remnant of Despair?”

“I… I wasn’t sure for a long time,” Shirogane says. “But… I thought a little about what you told me earlier—that Akamatsu-san wanted revenge—and, um,” she wrings her hands. “Isn’t forcing a trial to keep the game going something that a Remnant of Despair would do?”

Tenko stares at the floor, still chewing on her lip. Shirogane presses on, saying, “I also talked to Hoshi-kun, and he said the whole thing felt like a trap, and I’m plainly starting to wonder if maybe he was right. Especially since, well, if we do the trial, then that means everything from Akamatsu-san deciding to stay with Ouma-kun… it’s all just resulted in the deaths of the two people who constantly challenged her.” Tenko doesn’t look up at her, and Shirogane gasps. “Oh! Sorry, I just went on and on about… something really horrible. I’m so sorry, Chabashira-san.”

Tenko remains silent, and Shirogane opens her mouth to apologize again when Shirogane hears a message seeming to echo from the speakers outside of the hanger. She feels she’s heard it enough times to almost recite along with Monokuma how it’s now time for the trial to begin. 

“Ah,” Shirogane says. “I guess that means we should…”

“Right,” Tenko says. “We should—right.”

They don’t say anything else on their way to the elevator, though more shouting greets them as they draw near. Tenko takes a second to straighten her shoulders before jogging the last few steps to reach the source of the commotion.

Shirogane follows after her to see Kaede, Hoshi, Momota, and the same purple Exisal Maki was piloting. Shirogane assumes she’s still piloting it as it seems to shift almost as if it had a body language of its own, and Maki’s voice still echoes out of it. She approaches tentatively and catches Maki’s saying, “—is based on nothing.”

“Nothing!?” Kaede shouts back. “Who—who else would have broken into my room _and_ Ouma-kun’s room? Why are you even trying to deny it?”

“Someone broke into your room?” Shirogane asks hesitantly.

Kaede looks at her, seemingly almost confused by her presence, before her eyes shift to Tenko and she appears to relax slightly. “I tried to go to my room during the investigation, and the door was practically falling off its hinges. And when I went inside, it was obvious someone had been through my stuff.”

“And you already fucking said nothing was missing!” Momota says. 

“That doesn’t change the fact that someone was in my room!”

Shirogane quietly slips around them to stand near Hoshi simply watching the argument before him through half-lidded eyes. “You investigated?”

“Ah, a bit,” she answers. “And they…”

He sighs as he tugs at his hat. “Akamatsu went to her room and got angry when, well, she spelled it out pretty well. Apparently she checked and the same thing was true for Ouma’s room. ‘Course none of us know what he had in there well enough to know if anything was missing.”

“Someone went through both of their rooms,” Shirogane says. “And she thinks it was Harukawa-san?”

Hoshi shrugs. “Mean, she’s the most likely suspect, but,” his eyes flicker over the argument before them that seems just on the verge of escalating to a screaming match. “Don’t really feel like getting involved in it.”

“I—yeah,” she says. “Yeah…”

Shirogane lets herself tune back into the others fighting when she hears Kaede say, “You know—it doesn’t matter because as soon as we get down there, you’re going to be executed.”

“No,” Maki says. “I’m not.”

Kaede scoffs. “Really? You really think we’re not going to vote for you immediately.”

“No, I just know how Monokuma’s rules work,” Maki says. “Which is why I prepared for them. No matter who you vote for, Monokuma can’t touch me as long as I’m in the Exisal. He’s powerless.”

Shirogane blinks up at the giant robot, it’s shadow casting malevolently over all of them. “I… I see.”

Kaede narrows her eyes. “You’ll have to come out of there eventually.”

“Akamatsu, just fucking knock it off already,” Momota says. 

Kaede scowls before turning away, mumbling to herself, “Why am I even bothering with talking to you?”

An uneasy silence falls over them. The elevator has yet to arrive, and Shirogane looks over her remaining classmates, all so wrapped up in their own versions of the truth that she makes a decision. 

When the trial starts, she’ll lead them through every twist and turn, whether they like it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my favorite things is arguments where neither character is completely right or completely wrong, so, well, that's what I was trying out my hand at writing here, haha. Anyway, I will have some more real life responsibilities coming up soon, but I still hope to be able to update at a reasonably regular pace!


	33. Trial X

The wait for the elevator is dead quiet. Fitting the five of them in the cramped space with an Exisal was an obvious impossibility, and Maki simply strode forward ahead of them to take the first ride down alone. Monokuma had appeared to make a general fuss, but Maki had seemed prepared for him and simply replied that he could either do a trial without the class or without the culprit if he refused them a second elevator trip.

With the exception of Kaede directing a rather pointed look towards both Momota and Maki when the latter had so casually announced herself as the culprit, little came of the incident other than the extreme discomfort they now found themselves in now.

Kaede darkly mutters under her breath, “this is ridiculous,” and Shirogane doesn’t miss the way Momota rolls his eyes. The two are too locked up in their own anger to make note of anyone besides each other, and Shirogane steals the occasion glance at either of them in turn to gauge how they’ve managed to continue their hostilities in absolute silence.

Hoshi seems undisturbed as he chews on his cigarette and keeps his gaze hooded by his hat forward. Tenko is the only one who Shirogane guesses shares her levels of discomfort. Her arms are wrapped protectively around herself, she appears to be on the edge of saying something for their entire wait.

But the silence continues until the elevator softly dings. Kaede stomps towards it, mumbling, “let’s get this over with.” Momota sighs in frustration as he follows her but doesn’t say anything else.

Hoshi takes a second to ready himself on his crutches before heading forward of his own accord, either not noticing or not bothering to acknowledge Shirogane silently trying to catch his attention. With Hoshi as a lost cause, she turns to Tenko, who only bites her lip in response to Shirogane’s attempt at an encouraging smile. “Are you ready?” Shirogane says. “We’re… we’re the only ones who investigated, so we’re going to have to try our best.”

Tenko gives her a lingering look and seems to internally weigh something before saying, “Yeah, yeah…” Her eyes flicker to the ground before she takes a deep breath and forces herself to smile back. “You can do it, Shirogane-san. Tenko… Tenko knows you can.”

Her tone of voice betrays just how little she believes in that, but Shirogane still says, “Thank you—and I know you can do it, too.”

“Ah,” Tenko nods to herself. “Right. Thank you, Shirogane-san.”

Tenko nods again and walks away from their half-hearted conversation. Shirogane’s only a stride behind her, and makes her way easily enough to her usual spot at the back of the elevator. With their backs turned to her, Shirogane observes them coolly again, thinking idly over how awry things have gone, how she can possibly pick up the pieces before her, how whatever awaits them after this trial will possibly play out.

The doors click shut and the hum narrating their descent is a saving grace as the others all remain too wrapped up in their worlds to say anything.

The Exisal is waiting almost nonchalantly in the trial room when they arrive. It’s positioned roughly behind where Maki’s usual trial stand is, but Hoshi seems remarkably cavalier about the situation with little attention paid to it other than a mumbled, “huh,” as he moves to his place right next to the towering machine.

Shirogane moves to take her stand, and the only other reaction to the courtroom she notices is Tenko flinching slightly at finally being framed by the familiar crossed out portraits. Shirogane does think the red X slashed over Ouma’s mouth is perhaps a bit much, but another part of her almost vindictively thinks how appropriate it is. _No more lies._

“Well, now that everyone is _finally_ assembled,” Monokuma says with an agitated look towards Maki’s Exisal. “I suppose we can begin. So, to start with a basic explanation of the class trial—”

“We don’t need it,” Kaede says. “We don’t need to do any of this. Monokuma, just let us vote already.”

“Huh? Voting already? But we just—”

“Very well,” Maki says. “And after we do, Monokuma will realize it’s impossible to keep playing his game.”

“Impossib—”

Kaede throws her hands in the air. “Okay, I don’t know what the hell I’m expecting, but can you care for five seconds that someone is dead because of you? You killed an innocent person and you’re completely unrepentant—why is no one bothered by this!?”

“Akamatsu, shut the hell up,” Momota snaps. “And stop fucking pretending you’re the only person who cares about Ouma.”

“Momota,” Maki says. “Ignore her—Akamatsu has already proven she has no problem hiding behind corpses.”

“I’m hiding?” Kaede scoffs. “I’m not the one in a giant _fucking_ robot!”

“So you believe it would be better if I were to leave the Exisal,” Maki says. “I suppose Momota was right—you really do want me to be executed. Although, you wanted that before Ouma’s death, so that would mean you’re just hiding behind him, too, wouldn’t it?”

Kaede grits her teeth, and her hands turn white from the strain of gripping the front of her podium. “I want justice for my friend.”

“No,” Maki says. “You want to continue the killing game—which I suppose makes sense given that you started it… and your real identity.”

Kaede throws her hands in the air. “I am not a Remnant of Despair! Whatever you saw in that Flashback Light was a trick!”

Maki pauses for a moment. Then, “I think you should tell that to Saihara. And maybe Amami, too. Actually…”

She trails off, leaving Kaede to shout back, “So I killed them, alright! But that doesn’t mean—”

“That you’re the mastermind?” Amami says from the Exisal. “Those two things don’t go together somehow.”

The sudden appearance of a voice they thought they would never hear again spurs the others to interrupt, even if solely out of sheer confusion. “Wha…” Momota begins. “What the hell is going on?”

“A-Amami-san?” Tenko says.

Kaede opens her mouth but is interrupted by Saihara’s voice. “I suppose you would appreciate this more, but I think going over how much you love him would just be a waste of time.”

Momota gives Kaede something close to a sympathetic look as she trembles in anger in the face of the Exisal. “Hey, Maki,” he says. “Yeah, just—knock that off already. There’s… no fucking point to it.”

Her own voice comes through the speakers again as she says, “I was planning to. The Exisal for some reason has the ability to mimic any of our voices. I was intending to use it if Akamatsu became too much of a nuisance, and that happened earlier than I expected, it seems.”

“Yeah…” Momota says, furrowing his brow as he stares at the ground.

Hoshi’s eyes slide over to him as he casually remarks, “you don’t have to agree with her on everything just because you don’t want her killed.”

Momota jerks up to look at him. “I fucking know that. I just—”

“Cruelty’s cruelty,” Hoshi says with a shrug. “All I’m saying.”

“Tenko thinks,” she says, “that we shouldn’t talk about this anymore. And that Harukawa-san shouldn’t use the voice changer anymore.”

“I-I second that,” Shirogane chimes in. “Like Hoshi-kun said—it’s just plainly cruel… even if Akamatsu-san is the mastermind, I guess.”

They all seem to wait for a moment for a defense from her, but Kaede remains silent, eyes still locked on Maki’s Exisal. Hoshi lets out a sigh. “So we’re voting now, then. We’re all in agreement to just get this over?”

“No,” Momota says, with a shake of his head. “We’re not killing Maki—Hoshi, I thought you said you didn’t want to play Monokuma’s game anymore?”

“I did,” he says. “But it seems like Harukawa’s already figured out what she wants to do.” He pulls a cigarette out of his pocket and says with a shrug, “And I think skipping the part where everyone yells at each other would be fine.”

Momota opens his mouth to protest again when Maki cuts him off. “Momota—it’s fine. Whether we vote now or later, Monokuma cannot do anything to me. As long as you survive this, I do not care how this trial goes.”

He blinks at her words, saying only, “Maki…”

Shirogane bites her lip, unsure how to urge further discussion when Tenko does it for her. “Um,” she says. “Tenko is… sorry for bringing this up, but Harukawa-san? You want Momota-san to survive?”

Maki, to her credit seems unphased, “Is there a problem with that? You of all people have been very insistent upon wanting people to live.”

“Tenko has,” she says. “But just,” she shakes her head. “Tenko… Tenko knows that Harukawa-san isn’t the only possible killer.”

“What?” Kaede gasps.

“Chabashira,” Maki says. “What are you trying to accuse me of?”

“Lying, is my guess,” Hoshi says dully.

Kaede shakes her head but keeps her voice calm as she says, “Tenko-san, I know you’re just trying to help, but there’s no doubt that Harukawa-san’s the killer. I saw her and, even if he’s being awful right now, Momota-kun did, too.”

Tenko fidgets under their barrage and seems on the verge of dropping it altogether as they continue. Shirogane pushes her glasses up, partially hoping they’ll shine in such a way to make her seem more like a protagonist.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Tenko just thinks,” she says. “That there might be more possible killers than just Harukawa-san…”

“I have no intentions of defending myself,” Maki says. “Or hiding from my crime. Why are you trying to make excuses for me?”

“I don’t think we should vote for Maki,” Momota says. “Or anyone, but trying to find another killer? Isn’t it impossible for anyone else to be the culprit?”

Kaede frowns in spite of her words. “It is. As much as I hate to agree, Momota-kun’s right. Harukawa-san’s the killer—there’re eyewitnesses, evidence, and she confessed. There’s just no debating that point.”

“Ah, right,” Tenko says. “Sorry, Tenko just… wasn’t sure. Tenko doesn’t want to accuse any of her friends either, so… she probably just got confused.”

“And if this nonsense is over,” Maki says. “Then we can end this farce of a trial.”

“Monokuma,” Kaede says. “Just let us vote already.”

_(BREAK)_

Shirogane can barely stop the eagerness in her voice as she says, “No, that’s wrong! There is another possible culprit!”

Kaede looks more confused than anything as she says, “Who?”

“Momota-san…” Tenko says very softly.

Momota stares at her in shock for a moment, recovering himself only to say, “Chabashira? You think I—”

“Tenko doesn’t want to!” she shouts back. “Tenko doesn’t want to think that _anyone_ would torture and kill one of her friends, but—!”

Tenko cuts herself off with a shake of her head. “Tortured,” Hoshi says, echoing her last sentiment. “Never went to the hanger but… Chabashira wouldn’t lie about that…”

Momota seems somehow even angrier than before. “You—you think the fact that he was tortured means I fucking killed him!? Who the hell do you think—”

“That’s not why,” Shirogane says, the sudden strictness in her normally soft voice commanding their attention. “Chabashira-san was certainly very upset by the state of the hanger, but that’s not why Momota-kun is a possible culprit.”

“And…” Kaede says hesitantly. “Why does Tenko-san think that?”

“Because of what Harukawa-san was saying,” Shirogane says. “About how she only wants Momota-kun to live. Doesn’t that plainly seem strange? I mean, what kind of culprit shows up to their trial and then hurries the vote against them? Mystery isn’t my favorite genre, but I’ve played enough games to know the first culprit is always a red herring!”

Maki says, “So you have no logical argument. My goals of ending this game and keeping Momota alive are important, but I have no intentions of dying for them. And I also have no intention of behaving like Akamatsu and killing innocent people for the sake of a schoolyard crush, if that’s what you’re implying.”

Kaede glares down the hulking robot. “No, you’d just kill innocent people for fun.”

“Akamatsu,” Momota says. “Can you fucking sto—”

“There’s also another reason!” Shirogane says hurriedly. “A-Another reason why Momota-kun could be the killer. Or at least, um, a reason that lets things sort of all make sense together.”

Momota’s gaze shifts to her, and he seems more tired than anything as he says, “I didn’t kill Ouma. I… I fucking learned my lesson, and I swore I would protect him.”

“Tenko knows that,” Tenko says. “But… Momota-san still had the opportunity to.”

“Don’t know much about that,” Hoshi says. “But,” he sighs. “There’s motive, too. Stop Harukawa from becoming the culprit.”

“I wouldn’t fucking do that!” Momota yells. He’s clenching his jaw, and as hot headed as he’s always been, Shirogane thinks this might be the angriest she’s ever seen him. “All of you—how the hell can all of you think I would do that to him!? I know I fucked up before, but Ouma was my friend!”

There is a brief moment of silence as his words echo in the room, and Shirogane sees him bracing himself on his podium, sweat beading on his forehead. Her first thought is that his current posture and heavy breathing might be from sheer emotional exertion, but then she notices that his other hand is pressed to his stomach.

She isn’t sure if Maki notices as well, but the other girl says, “Accusing Momota is a waste of time, and if you attempt to vote for him, I will stop you.”

Hoshi nonchalantly stares up at the guns looming over his head. “Not sure if more murder’s allowed at a class trial.”

“I’d like to see Monokuma stop me,” Maki responds. “But either way, it doesn’t matter. Momota’s innocent.”

“So you just threatened to shoot us all as a ‘just in case,’” Kaede says.

Shirogane frowns, then, doing her best not to shrink in on herself when everyone’s gazes turn to her. “Um, everyone, I understand wanting to believe Momota-kun’s word but… that’s not actually proof that he’s innocent, is it?”

Momota runs a hand over his face. “For fuck’s sake, Shirogane…”

“Momota-san,” Tenko says. “Do not swear at her—Shirogane-san is simply trying to find the truth because…” her gaze falls to the ground. “Because we still don’t know what happened when you went to the hanger alone last night.”

He seems to freeze in place at that, and Maki answers instead. “Momota doesn’t have to say anything to you.”

Kaede scowls as she crosses her arms. “So you’re going to hide information from—”

“If you want to know what happened when he came to the hanger, I can tell you.”

Shirogane furrows her brow. “Ah, I guess that would work, but I plainly think Momota-kun can tell us himself. I mean, the suspect should be the one to give their alibi, right?”

Momota’s hands are curled around the edge of his podium, and his mouth remains glued shut as he tears his eyes away from her without a word. It’s suspicious enough of a reaction that Maki once again leaps to his defense. “Momota’s not responding because he’s ashamed,” she says. “I didn’t let him into the hanger last night, and that was the end of it. Now, do we really need to waste more time on this?”

Hoshi sighs. “Can’t believe I’m saying this,” he says. “But this is too suspicious to just ignore… we should keep going with the trial.”

“I plainly have to agree,” Shirogane says with a short nod. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to protect one of your friends, but in a class trial, we can’t just trust in friendshi—”

“Maki’s telling the truth,” Momota says suddenly. “My plan to try and save Ouma was a complete failure—I never even made it past the fucking barrier before she stopped me and I just…” his expression is distant and there’s something almost broken in it as he continues. “Gave up… and then I went back and left Ouma to die without even seeing him.”

Tenko fidgets, though seems oddly relieved by such a depressing answer. “So Momota-san was simply being quiet because he was sad he wasn’t able to save Ouma-san.” She smiles softly at him. “And he’s too much of an awful, prideful boy to say anything—that’s the only thing he is guilty of.”

Momota doesn’t respond other than to give her a rather self-deprecating, pained smile. He seems to be on the verge of saying something further to agree with her, when Kaede says, “Is that why you didn’t come back to Saihara-kun’s lab that night? Were you just… too ashamed of yourself?”

It’s not accusatory, and Momota’s eyes rake over her for a moment before saying, “Yeah. I…” he runs a hand through his hair. “I knew I couldn’t face you—I couldn’t fucking face anyone after breaking my promise and running away like a coward.”

“And you,” Hoshi says, still intently fiddling with his cigarette. “You just went back to your room? That’s your entire story.”

“It’s not a story—it’s the truth,” Maki says. “And now that you’ve forced Momota to say it himself, are you satisfied?”

Hoshi stares at his cigarette and seems mildly frustrated even as he responds, “if the others are… I am. Won’t drag things out on just a feeling.”

Shirogane blinks at his words. “A feeling?” she says. “What kind of feeling?”

He shrugs. “Not worth explaining.”

Kaede also appears to be having a hard time swallowing his odd dismissal, and furrows her brow even as she says, “So… we’re done here then. Momota-kun had nothing to do with what happened and this has just been a wild goose chase.”

“The right answer,” Maki says. “Is usually the most obvious. The facts of this case were known from the very beginning, and, like I keep saying, arguing is a waste of time. Going over them to the point of nausea isn’t going to change anything, nor will it bring Ouma back from the dead.”

“Which is why,” Hoshi says. “We should drop me getting a vague feeling about something.”

Shirogane frowns, running everyone’s words through her head. Something is… not right, she decides even as she realizes that insisting that on only a hunch isn’t about to earn any support. But the trial must continue. She steels herself to speak again. “I-I also have a weird feeling about this,” she says. “And I think if two of us feel that way, it’s worth talking about, even if only for a little while longer.”

The others look unconvinced, and Hoshi sighs. “I regret mentioning anything—don’t have a feeling or a hunch about anything.” He pulls down his hat. “So we can just get this over with.”

“I-It’s not just a feeling!” Shirogane insists. “It’s—it’s intuition! A-And not only that, but I also investigated and I’m sure if we just talk about the crime scene a bit more, I can figure out why I just plainly feel so weird about all this.”

Maki sighs, and Shirogane is sure if she could see her, she should would be on the receiving end of a rather impressive eye roll. “Shirogane, is there a reason you insist on dragging out every little detail of this, or are you really just that paranoid?”

“My life is on the line!” Shirogane says. “All of our lives are on the line right now, a-and,” her eyes dart around the room, looking for support. “And I know everyone is tired, but it really can’t hurt to make sure that we’re being thorough about things. And maybe being exhausted or accusing each other of horrible things… that is terrible, I know, but it’s better than being dead.”

“Shirogane-san,” Tenko says giving her an odd but somehow still sympathetic look. “You… you really want to live—Tenko means, Tenko doesn’t want to die either, but after everything we heard about the outside world, you…”

Tenko doesn’t finish her thought, but Shirogane still answers it with a slightly embarrassed nod of her head. “I do. And—and maybe there is nothing left for us, but I still don’t want to give up. I still want to hold on to hope, no matter what it takes.”

“‘Hope?’” Kaede echoes.

“And because of that,” she swallows as her eyes stray towards Momota still clenching his jaw. “I’m sorry, Momota-kun, but I’m going to suspect you until my doubts are cleared because… I really just plainly don’t want to risk getting it wrong. I don’t want to risk things ending in despair.”

Momota seems unmoved by her speech, crossing his arms and glaring at the ground. He works his jaw a few times before finally saying, “I know we’re supposed to be symbols of hope and all of that crap, but… but if hope is what’s making you think that I would ever kill one of my friends—that I would kill someone I swore to protect—then I want nothing to do with that shitty hope.”

Shirogane feels her lips pull into a slight frown. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Momota-kun,” she says after a moment. “And I do want to believe in you, but I need to clear my doubts first, if that’s alright. And I just… don’t believe in belief without doubts.”

He continues to glare at the floor. Maki says, “Just let her tire herself out—as soon as Shirogane sees there’s nothing here, she’ll give up and we can move on with our lives.”

Hoshi sighs. “Not gonna tell anyone they should just give up living so,” he shakes his head. “You do what you need to do, Shirogane.”

“I,” she fills her confidence falter for a second even as she regains control. “I will. Um, thank you, everyone. I promise I will do my best.”

“Then stop stalling and actually present your arguments,” Maki snaps.

“R-Right!”

_(Present your Argument)_

“I understand why you’re doing this,” Kaede begins. “But… I don’t think I can believe Momota-kun would hurt Ouma-kun without evidence.”

“And when Shirogane realizes there is none,” Maki says. “She’ll give up.”

“Evidence that Momota-san is the culprit…” Tenko says. “If there was any, Tenko thinks it would be in the hanger…”

“Or maybe just evidence that he’s lying,” Hoshi says. “Sometimes people who aren’t the killer lie.”

“Momota already gave his testimony,” Maki says. “You asked for the truth, and he gave it to you.”

“Shirogane-san,” Kaede says, furrowing her brow. “Do you think Momota-kun is lying about his testimony? Is that why you have a weird feeling?”

Hoshi adds very quietly, “She’s not the only one with a weird feeling about what he said…”

“Momota-san,” Tenko says. “Please say something.”

“He doesn’t have to tell you anything,” Maki responds instead.

_(BREAK)_

“Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says. “I think you’re right—I think what’s bothering me is that Momota-kun’s testimony doesn’t match up with what we found at the crime scene.”

“I didn’t lie!” Momota shouts suddenly.

“Do not yell at her!” Tenko shouts back.

“Chabashira,” Momota says. “You hear what she’s saying—she’s fucking accusing me of killing Ouma, and—”

“And if you didn’t,” Tenko says raising her voice. “If… If Momota-san is innocent, then you should have no problems with hearing the rest of what Shirogane-san has to say. Because,” her voice cracks slightly. “Because Tenko knows you are innocent, so you should not be afraid… you should not be yelling at people to shut up and then get quiet when they try to ask you a question.”

Shirogane nods along eagerly with Tenko’s defense. “Chabashira-san is right, and I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding and that there’s a perfectly good reason for why… for why you lied about not getting past the barrier last night when you went to go bring the antidote to Ouma-kun.”

Momota gapes at her, but before he can say anything, Kaede says, “You got into the hanger last night?”

“Where is your evidence?” Maki says. “You can’t just—”

“Last night,” Shirogane says. “Momota-kun went to get an electrohammer from Hoshi-kun, and, Hoshi-kun, did he ever bring it back?”

“No,” Hoshi says. “That was the last time I… saw him that night.”

“Then Momota simply took it with him when he returned to his room,” Maki says.

“No, he didn’t,” Tenko says softly. “This morning… Tenko and Shirogane-san found two used electrohammers inside of the hanger.”

Kaede tugs at the brim of her hat. “One of them was probably the one Harukawa-san used last night, but if there was another used one…” She shakes her head. “Ouma-kun had extras in the hanger, so the second one was probably just one Harukawa-san used for something last night.”

“Exactly,” Maki says.

Shirogane frowns. “Okay, but what did you use it on?”

Maki sighs. “I had to enter and exit the hanger during the night to get cleaning supplies. The hammers were just the most convenient way to take down the barrier since I wasn’t about to devote time to remembering Monokuma’s ridiculous code.”

“That,” Kaede says. “That doesn’t make sense—you had Ouma-kun with you, and he had the remote to the hanger. Are you saying you just let him keep it while you were torturing him?”

“I did not torture the little pest,” she says. “I only found the hammers to be easier—”

“But then,” Shirogane interrupts. “Why wasn’t there a used hammer outside of the hanger when we went there this morning?”

“Because—”

“Maki,” Momota says suddenly. “Just… stop. They’re not buying it.”

Hoshi gives him a sidelong glance. “You’re confessing?”

“I,” Momota clutches the edges of his podium despite long since having held on to it a white knuckled grip. He seems to debate something for a moment longer before letting out a sigh. “Yeah, I got into the hanger last night. I talked to Maki, dropped the hammer I used like a fucking idiot, and… and I saw Kokichi.”

His statement is enough to make even Maki in the Exisal start at his words. “Momota—what are you doing?”

Momota ignores her. “I told her I was there to give Kokichi the antidote, and she told me to leave, and when I said I wasn’t gonna do that, we got into another fight and the antidote shattered on the floor.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “When that happened, I knew Kokichi was going to die from Maki’s poison, and—and, fuck, I had to do something.”

“And,” Kaede says very quietly. “What was that something?”

“Momota, shut up,” Maki snaps. “Stop lying, stop—”

“I was telling the truth earlier when I said I would never do anything to hurt Kokichi,” he says. “But,” he presses the heel of his hand to his eyes. “I couldn’t just let him suffer, and I couldn’t let Maki be executed. You were right, Shirogane, I was hiding crap, but you guys figured it out.”

“Momota is lying,” Maki says. “He thinks he is trying to protect me, even though all that will do will result in everyone dying.”

Hoshi pulls down his hat. “Well, this all certainly seems familiar.”

Kaede bites her lips as her gaze strays to the ground. Tenko speaks instead, saying, “do you think… Monokuma will let us be wrong again? Or will we all die for real this time…”

“It’s not going to come to that,” Shirogane says. “I-I want to live, and I refuse to let it come to that again.”

“I also refuse to allow a split vote,” Maki says. “Momota, I’m not running away, so stop trying to help me. Now.”

“If Momota-kun is the culprit,” Kaede says. “And everything up till now was a trap to get us to vote for Harukawa-san, she would still be safe from Monokuma’s punishment. The two of them could claim to be the two remaining students in the rules and escape.”

“I would never do that!” Momota shouts. “I’d never just fucking leave you guys to die—that’s why I’m confessing!”

“You also said you would never hurt Ouma-kun!” Kaede yells back at him. “You keep going on, and on, lying and lying. And maybe you’re telling the truth now, or maybe you were telling it earlier, but either way that means that at some point during this trial, you were—or maybe still are—willing to let everyone die!”

“I killed Kokichi! Is that what you want to hear!? I couldn’t get the antidote to him, so I killed him!”

Shirogane wrings her hands as Kaede screams back at him. The fact that they had survived Saihara’s trial after voting incorrectly had been a fluke, and Shirogane knows that there is no possibility of Monokuma sparing them a second time.

Her eyes dart to the Exisal as Maki inputs her own scattered defenses of Momota into the shouting match happening in the court room. This is different than Saihara’s trial. There is a right answer.

Shirogane says, “E-Excuse me! I think there is a way to find out who’s lying.”

Momota says, “What are you talking about? Me and Maki are the only ones who—”

“I-I mean,” she says. “It’s sorta like what we tried before with,” her eyes dart briefly to Kaede, “with Saihara-kun’s trial. Both suspects can tell us how they, um, how they did it and we can compare using the evidence.”

“But,” Hoshi says. “That failed.”

“Yes,” Shirogane concedes. “But I investigated the crime scene really thoroughly this time. Chabashira-san, did, too.”

Kaede’s lips twitch into a frown before she opens her mouth, but Tenko interjects, “Tenko doesn’t know how helpful she’ll be, but,” she bites her lip. “She doesn’t think she can believe any of her friends would do something so horrible without proof. So… so Tenko isn’t going to vote until she’s convinced.”

“Tenko-san,” Kaede breathes.

“Why are you acting shocked?” Maki says. “Isn’t that how we’re supposed to vote at every class trial?”

“It is,” Shirogane says before Kaede can argue back. “And that’s why I really want to hear the full, true story from both of you before we proceed any further.” The authoritativeness in her voice suddenly makes her feel self conscious as the others turn to her, and Shirogane quickly adds. “I-If that’s plainly alright with everyone, that is.”

Maki says, “I have no problems with—”

“Shirogane, what kind of game are you playing?” Momota asks. “First you do all this crap to make me confess to being the culprit, and now you don’t fucking believe me?”

She blinks at him. “I, um, w-well—”

“You got what you fucking wanted,” he says. “I killed Kokichi, and I lied because I didn’t want to admit that I hurt one of my friends. And now that you know, we can just vote and end this fucked up trial.”

Shirogane fidgets under his intense stare. But still, she presses on, saying, “I’m sorry I accused you earlier, Momota-kun, but… please stop lying to me. All I want to know is the truth, and if you were actually Ouma-kun’s friend, you wouldn’t be trying so hard to stop me.”

Momota practically growls at her. “Shut up! Stop fucking acting like you know anything about me or about Kokichi, or—”

“I will know if you tell me what happened,” she says.

Shirogane does her best to steel herself in the wake of the look of pure rage on his face as he glares at her. Sometimes, she knows, that someone will refuse to listen and the only way to get through to them is one-on-one.

_(Rebuttal Showdown)_

“I killed Kokichi—is that what you want to hear?”

“You wanted a confession, so I’m giving you one.”

“I don’t want to be forgiven or defended or any of that crap.”

“I betrayed him, and I deserve to be executed for what I did.”

“So I won’t try to fight you—just vote for me already said we can end this.”

_(Advance)_

“Momota-kun, if you want me to believe you’re the culprit, then I plainly need to hear your story.”

“Can you please just tell me what happened?”

“Fine. Last night, I went to the hanger, and Maki tried to stop me from giving him the antidote.”

“The bottle ended up getting smashed on the ground, and I knew…”

“I didn’t want him to die from the poison, so I just… made sure he didn’t suffer.”

“Maki freaked out and said she’d take care of it so there wouldn’t be a trial.”

“So she crushed his body and pretended that she was the killer when that wasn’t enough.”

“And that’s everything that happened. Are you satisfied now?”

“Can we please just… fucking vote already? After everything that’s happened, I don’t want to escape anymore. I just… I want to get what I deserve.”

_(BREAK)_

Shirogane points a victorious finger forward at him. “Wait, Momota-kun, you said that Harukawa-san tried to stop you from giving Ouma-kun the antidote when you entered the hanger, right?”

“Yeah,” he says. “How many times do you want me to tell you how badly I fucked up?”

“N-No,” she says. “It’s not that, it’s just that from the way you told your story, it sounds like the bottle for the antidote would be right near the entrance, right? But when Chabashira-san and I went to the hanger—”

“So it wasn’t exactly at the entrance,” Momota says. “The point is—”

“Objection! You’re changing your story!” Shirogane says.

Momota clenches his jaw. “No, I’m not—we fought and the fucking bottle broke. That’s what happened.”

“Okay, and if you didn’t fight right at the entrance, then can you tell me where exactly in the hanger this happened?” she says. “And if you were so desperate to give Ouma-kun the antidote, why did you wait until you were somewhere else in the hanger to bring up giving it to him with Harukawa-san?”

Momota pauses, and begins his explanation with a stammer that gives Shirogane an odd sense of satisfaction. His eyes dart away from her, looking so much like a caged animal as he begins to speak. “L-Look, okay—it just—it doesn’t matter. I told you the tru—”

“If you did,” Shirogane says. “Then you can tell me where the antidote was in the hanger this morning.”

“I,” he says. “I don’t fucking know—I wasn’t paying attention to that. And Maki probably moved—”

“If she did, then that would mean she individually moved all of the glass and the puddle it made on the ground.”

He stops again, running a hand through his hair and cursing to himself. Maki steps in saying, “You made your point, Shirogane. Momota,” her voice turns softer. “You can stop now.”

Momota looks up at her for a brief moment before sighing and hanging his head. Tenko hesitatingly says, “so all of that—that was just made up. Momota-san didn’t hurt Ouma-san.” She smiles softly. “Tenko is actually relieved to hear that.”

“He didn’t hurt Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “But… Momota-kun, you just tried to kill all of us.”

Momota remains silent, and Maki speaks again. “You act like no one here has ever done that before.”

Hoshi sighs as he tugs at his hat. Kaede keeps frowning, clearly unsatisfied with that answer. “Just because someone else has doesn’t mean it’s okay,” she says. “Our lives are at stake, and I’m just pointing out that this isn’t the first time Momota-kun has tried to kill us for Harukawa-san.”

“What do you mean?” Tenko asks quietly.

“I mean that he tried to convince us to just let the time limit expire, so we’d all die instead of just Harukawa-san,” Kaede says. “We just,” she pulls her hat down. “For this trial, we can’t trust him. It’s too likely that he’s just going to lie again.”

“I think I have to agree with that,” Shirogane says. “Um, sorry, Momota-kun.”

Maki scoffs. “You seemed so excited to back him into a corner, and you’re apologizing now? If you don’t trust him, just say it. I think we’re all far past pretending to get along at this point.”

Momota mumbles to himself just on the edge of Shirogane’s hearing, “I didn’t want to hurt anyone… fuck…”

Despite her much better hearing, Kaede seems to miss his comment as she glares up at Maki. “You know, I think we figured that out when you decided to go on a killing spree.”

“One person is not a spree,” Maki says. “And it’s a bit hard to take that accusation seriously, coming from you.”

“I get it,” Kaede hisses. “I killed Amami-kun and Sai—”

“You are responsible for the deaths of everyone in the killing game,” Maki says. “Or, should I say, your killing game.”

Before Kaede can respond, Shirogane says, “Ah, right—no matter what happens, it would be… probably really dangerous to forget about that.”

Tenko shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot. “Tenko doesn’t know about tha—”

“I’m not the mastermind!” Kaede shouts. “I already told you guys—you were tricked.”

“Tricked how?” Momota says bitterly, eyes still locked on the floor. “It was in a fucking Flashback Light. There can be no mistake about what you really are.”

“Suppose that is true,” Hoshi says before shifting slightly to lean more comfortably on his crutch. “Since we’re at a trial, guess now’s not the worst time for an interrogation.”

“Good point,” Maki says. “Akamatsu—”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Kaede bites back. “And—and if I’m a Remnant of Despair or whatever, then what the hell are you? Are you really trying to argue that you’re somehow more innocent than I am? You’re a cold blooded killer—even now, after you’ve made,” she throws her hands in the air, “the one person you care about here miserable, you still don’t care that you’re killing and hurting people. How can whatever the hell I am be worse than that?”

A brief silence casts over the room before Shirogane clears her throat with an artificial cough. “Ah, um, I know I’m pretty plainly not the person you want to hear an answer to that from, but, well, while I know everyone made their own choices to kill or not, none of us would even be in this mess if it weren’t for the Remnants of Despair and the mastermind.”

“And,” Hoshi says, eyes pointedly not on Kaede, “can’t speak for her, but we’re symbols of hope or something. Harukawa probably went after you to try and stop humanity’s last survivors from falling into despair. Also,” his gaze finally flickers up to her. “Akamatsu, even if you’re not the mastermind, you’re probably not the person who should be upset about someone committing murder to try and end the game.”

“No,” Kaede says. “I think I’m the exact right person because I know just how unforgivable it is.”

Shirogane isn’t quite sure how to respond to that, and it appears that no one else is, either, as another silence falls over them.

Then, “Um, if it’s alright, Tenko has a question for Harukawa-san.”

Shirogane blinks at Tenko as Maki says, “I thought we agreed to question Akamatsu now. I think everyone would prefer to get some information out of the mastermind about their idiotic game while we have the opportunity.”

Tenko bites her lip. “That’s… sort of related to Tenko’s question. Kinda.”

“Chabashira, if you have something to say, just spit it out,” Maki says.

Tenko frowns at that, seeming to gain some of her resolve back through sheer agitation. “Tenko is happy that Kaede-san is okay,” she begins. “But she doesn’t understand why… why Ouma-san is the victim, not Kaede-san.”

Momota blinks at her. “What do you mean?”

“Tenko wasn’t there for the Flashback Light,” she says. “But it said that Kaede-san was a Remnant of Despair and that Ouma-san, um, was he also one or was he a student like us?”

“Don’t remember anything special about him,” Hoshi says. “We were all in different classes, so none of us had met each other before this, including Ouma.”

Shirogane says, “That’s right, so I guess we can just assume he was a student. I feel like if I remembered Akamatsu-san being a Remnant of Despair, I would have remembered if Ouma-kun was one, too. Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Tenko says. “It’s just… Harukawa-san went after Akamatsu-san because she was the mastermind, right? Or a Remnant of Despair at least…”

“Is there a point here?” Maki says. “Or are you just going to repeat information we already know?”

“Harukawa-san,” Tenko says. “You told Tenko that your mission is to kill the mastermind, and that the way you solve your problems is to complete your mission so why… why did you kill Ouma-san instead?”

“He was in the way,” she replies nonchalantly. “Just because my goal was—and still is—to kill Akamatsu, doesn’t mean I would spare everyone who tried to stop me. And I said before that I would kill him, so I did.”

“Maki,” Momota says quietly. “You—you promised me… Did you really hate him that much?”

Maki pauses for a moment before saying, “I am sorry, Momota. Not for what I did but for betraying your faith. I’m not as a good a person as you want me to be, and I never have been.” She goes quiet again, and her voice sounds almost pained when she next speaks. “I am sorry you had to find out this way… still, thank you for having believed in me. I’ve never had that before, and it was nice while it lasted.”

“How real is this apology?” Kaede cuts in.

Momota’s gaze snaps to her. “Akama—”

“The only thing you just said is that you’re sad killing whoever you want makes Momota-kun upset,” Kaede says. “And you basically admitted that you killed Ouma-kun just because you could, not to mention you obviously have no intentions to change since you also said you’re still planning to kill me.”

“Ah, wait,” Shirogane says. Momota, Kaede, and the hulking Exisal all shift to stare at her, and she shrinks slightly under their shared gazes as she continues. “U-Um, I was just thinking that’s strange, isn’t it? If Harukawa-san killed Ouma-kun for no reason why, well, why didn’t she just shoot him? She has a crossbow, right?”

“I did kill him with the crossbow,” Maki says. “And then I crushed the body to prevent a trial. Haven’t we already discussed this?”

“Tenko… doesn’t remember,” she says cautiously. “But Ouma’s specific cause of death isn’t listed in the Monokuma File because of—of what happened to his body.”

Maki sighs. “Well, now you know, though it doesn’t really matter. Whether, he was poisoned, shot, or crushed—dead is dead, and that’s the end of it.”

“You sound real apologetic,” Kaede says.

“I don’t need the mastermind talking back to me,” Maki says.

“Sorry,” Shirogane says. “Er, sorry to interrupt again, but doesn’t that plainly seem kind of like a strange answer? ‘His cause of death doesn’t matter?’”

“It’s the truth,” Maki says.

“Tenko doesn’t believe that,” Tenko says. “Because—because Tenko wanted to know even before the trial why one of her friends had to die. And Harukawa-san said—”

“He was collateral,” Maki says. “What more reason do you want?”

Kaede crosses her arms. “I think I have to agree with Shirogane-san now. You like showing off how good you are at killing, so tell us how you did it.”

Maki sighs again. “Like I said—it doesn’t matter.”

“Then it won’t hurt to tell us,” Hoshi reasons.

“No,” she says after a brief moment of silence. “I suppose it won’t. I merely wanted to avoid the details for Momota’s sake.”

Momota stays quiet but noticeably grimaces as he grabs at his side. Kaede says, “I’m sure he can stomach it.”

Maki pauses again. Then, “Fine then. But I’ll only say this once, so if you’re not paying attention, it’s your own fault.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“I don’t know why you’re all so obsessed with this,” Maki says. “But I killed Ouma exactly how you think I did.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Kaede says. “Did you shoot him or let him die slowly from the poison?”

“Someone said the scene of the crime,” Hoshi says, “made it seem like he was tortured before he died.”

“Poison would make more sense then,” Kaede says. “If Harukawa-san wanted to torture him because apparently that’s fun for her, she probably just let the poison kill him.”

Hoshi frowns. “Suppose that makes sense. Is there any proof another arrow was used? Or any other weapons?”

“Maybe if there was another arrow,” Tenko says. “It was crushed with him in the hydraulic press, but that means we have no idea…”

Momota squeezes his eyes shut, though remains silent.

“And you don’t need to know, either,” Maki says. “Like I said, the specifics change nothing.”

“The cause of death isn’t listed in the Monokuma File,” Kaede says. “Which means it has to be important somehow, right? And it’s definitely something you don’t want us to know, which means we can’t let it go if we want the truth.”

_(BREAK)_

“Hoshi-kun, I agree with that!” Shirogane says a bit too loudly in her excitement. “What we should think about is what was at the crime scene, because there was a weapon there that seemed out of place.”

Kaede crosses her arms. “What do you mean? Was it the arrows or the poison that seemed wrong to you?”

“What seems wrong is that there was one more weapon there,” Shirogane says. “Even though Ouma-kun was shot and poisoned, I think it’s much more likely that he died from something else, given the scene of the crime.”

“And that third mystery weapon is?” Hoshi says.

“Well, you see when I was investigating, hidden in the bathroom was a—”

“A knife,” Maki cuts her off. “I ended up finishing Ouma off with a knife I had brought with me. Satisfied?”

Shirogane can’t help but let her shoulders slump at the loss of her dramatic reveal. “Oh,” she says. “Um, yes. That’s what I thought.”

“Then why did you hide it?” Kaede says. “Why is it so important to you to lie to us about stupid things?”

“I already told you,” Maki answers. “Given the circumstances, I would prefer to spare the details. I don’t want to make anyone here suffer more than necessary.”

“But you made Ouma-san suffer,” Tenko says. “Tenko thinks… you used the knife to torture him, but you don’t want us to know because you don’t want to hurt Momota-san.”

“Chabashira—”

“Ouma-san died really horribly, didn’t he?” Tenko continues. “But you still care more about making sure Momota-san isn’t uncomfortable…” she shakes her head. “Tenko doesn’t understand, and she doesn’t think she wants to.”

Maki goes perfectly quiet for a moment. Then, “I’m not going to try to convince you to feel differently. What’s done is done, and I still do not regret it. I suppose now, though, you will feel less guilty in voting for me, so maybe this conversation wasn’t so useless after all.”

“So everything you’ve done in this trial,” Hoshi says, eyeing the Exisal dubiously. “Was all of it for Momota?”

“She probably targeted Ouma-kun because of that, too,” Kaede adds. “Harukawa-san, is that the real reason you killed him? Are you _that_ obsessed with Momota-kun?”

Momota winces slightly at the conversation, but only moves to clutch at his side as leans more of his weight against his podium.

“Ah, it seems like it,” Shirogane says. “Ugh, that’s kind of a bummer—I’m really not a fan of that trope. It always just feels kinda lazy and bad to me…”

“I did it to end the game,” Maki says. “But if that’s easier for you to accept, then fine, I did it all for him. I’m sick of talking about this. Monokuma, I believe we’re ready to vote.”

“W-Wait!” Shirogane calls out. “Isn’t it too early for that? There are still some mysteries that still plainly haven’t been answered.”

“Shirogane, for fuck’s sake,” Momota says finally. “God, it almost seems like you’re fucking enjoying this or something.”

“N-No, of course I’m not!” she says. “I just want to know—”

“Why Kokichi died,” Momota says. “I get it. I fucking heard you the first time. But just,” he presses a hand to his face. “I wanna know why shit happened the way it did, too, sure, but going over how brutally he was killed, how much pain he was in, how everyone fucking failed him over and over again. I’m just,” he sighs. “I’m done. I don’t even care who you guys vote for anymore. Just put us out of our fucking misery already.”

Maki says, softer, “I did mean it when I apologized, Momota.”

“I know,” he says, matching her volume before going silent again.

Shirogane looks around almost desperately at the others, hoping someone will speak up in agreement with her. When no one does and Maki again prompts Monokuma, saying, “What are you waiting for?” she finds herself struggling in the spotlight again.

“We, um, we don’t need to talk about Ouma-kun anymore if it’s too hard,” Shirogane says. “But maybe we could talk a little bit more about Akamatsu-san? I mean, if she is the mastermind, then couldn’t we end this entire game right now and no one else would have to be executed?”

Kaede rolls her eyes. “Really?”

“It’s a fair enough point,” Maki says. “One I tried to argue for earlier, so fine. Akamatsu—were you working alone when you trapped us in this game, or was Ouma also working for you?”

“Well,” Kaede says. “If he didn’t confess after you did whatever kind of horrible stuff they teach you in assassin school to him, then I think you should conclude that no, he had nothing to do with anything, and you butchered an innocent person.”

“Kaede-san also wouldn’t know if Ouma-san was working for the mastermind or not anyway,” Tenko says. “Since she is also innocent.”

“The misplaced belief you have based on your feeling isn’t evidence,” Maki says. “We all know what the Flashback Light showed us, and all the good feelings and trust in the word isn’t going to change that.”

Shirogane nods. “I’m afraid that’s right. The power of friendship is really nice and uplifting, but… it’s kind of hard to argue with facts.”

Kaede groans. “I am not the mastermind! I don’t know anything about Monokuma or why we’re here or what’s outside—if you ask me anything, the answer is going to be ‘I don’t know because I’m not the mastermind!’”

“Akamatsu,” Hoshi says with a sigh. “Just… is there anything you can give us as proof that you’re not? Doesn’t matter how small it is—just anything that shows we can believe you.”

“Tenko doesn’t know if that’s fair to ask,” Tenko says.

“How so?” he asks.

“Tenko just means that if you asked her to prove she wasn’t the mastermind, she wouldn’t know what to say, and Tenko doesn’t think anyone else can say differently,” she says. “And even if it’s not evidence, Tenko still believes in Kaede-san—Tenko really wants to believe in the friends she has left.”

Hoshi tugs at his hat. “I… I get that. One of us is still lying, though, even if it’s not Akamatsu.”

“I think we should investigate everyone later,” Shirogane says. “But right now there’s the most evidence against Akamatsu-san that’d it plainly be kind of dangerous to just ignore it—a-at least that’s what I think.”

Kaede pinches the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know what you want me to say. Literally everything I’ve done up until has been to try and make sure you guys survive. I’ve investigated every death and found every culprit and—”

“And doesn’t that seem like something the mastermind would do?” Maki says. “Their game would come to a rather abrupt end if we didn’t pinpoint the culprit. It actually all fits together doesn’t it? The person who does so much at a trial never being targeted, while also getting everyone to see them as a savior so they’re above suspicion, or maybe they just have a god complex and this whole game is just built around making them look good.”

“If that last point is true,” Shirogane says. “Then I think it’s safe to say Akamatsu-san’s done a pretty bad job if she is the mastermind, that is.”

“And I’m not,” Kaede says again. “Why would I go to so much trouble to make my own life miserable? And just think about it! Why would I out myself using the Flashback Light if I was?”

Hoshi nods. “Been wondering that myself. But Remnants of Despair have… a thing for making their own plans fall apart.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Kaede says. “And the fact that I have no idea what you’re talking about means I’m being framed!”

“Akamatsu,” Momota says suddenly. “Just—just stop yelling at us and give us your damn proof already.”

Kaede glares at him. She opens and closes her mouth a few times before straightening the brim of her cap and saying, “Fine. Fine then.”

“Kaede-san,” Tenko says perking up. “You have proof?”

“I do,” she says. “And I’d have more if my witness wasn’t dead, but,” she sends a pointed glare towards Maki, “there’s nothing I can do about that now, is there?”

“No,” Maki says. “So start talking, mastermind.”

Shirogane adjusts her glasses as she focuses in on the conversation, steadying herself so her eagerness to solve the situation before her doesn’t show in her movements.

_(Present your Argument)_

“I do have proof that I’m not the mastermind,” Kaede says. “Proof that applies only to me and Ouma-kun. Everyone besides the two of us is a suspect.”

“How convenient,” Maki says. “If you want to tell the truth about the two of you working together the hurry up and do it.”

“But Ouma-san was not in the Flashback Light like Kaede-san was,” Tenko says. “So he was just a normal student.”

Momota says quietly, “Kokichi’s not the mastermind…”

“I know for a fact that Ouma-kun is innocent,” Kaede says. “And he also knew that I was, too. Because during the blackout when Yumeno-san was killed, we were the only two with alibis.”

“Iruma also had an alibi,” Hoshi says. “But… she’s gone, too.”

“Ah, yes,” Kaede says, losing a touch of her confidence. “That’s true, too, but it still holds up as evidence.”

“Stop trying to hide behind Ouma,” Maki says. “He’s dead.”

“And whose fault is that!?” Kaede shouts.

_(BREAK)_

“Wait, Akamatsu-san!” Shirogane says. “Your alibi—your alibi is Ouma-kun’s word?”

Kaede scowls. “It’s not just his word, but the fact that he handcuffed himself to me. Neither of us could have done anything to Yumeno-san or anyone else without the other knowing.”

“Which is why the two of you collaborated to continue your game,” Maki says.

“Will you just shut up!?” Kaede yells at her.

Shirogane’s eyes dart nervously back and forth between the two of them as she stammers, “U-Uh, well, I’m sorry, Akamatsu-san, but was anyone else with you and Ouma-kun the whole time during the black out to confirm you guys were together? It’s just… it’s hard to take a testimony from someone who isn’t even here as evidence.”

Kaede turns back to her. “Tenko-san saw it happen, and then we ran into you and Hoshi-kun later, and,” she frowns. “And then we were alone for a while before we ran into Angie-san.”

“Who is also dead,” Maki says. “And you can make up whatever stories you want for corpses to tell, can’t you?”

“It’s true!” Kaede says. “And everyone else was alone for the black out, so—”

“So you don’t have any more evidence,” Hoshi says. “Chabashira was right earlier—it’s not like I have something prepared to clear myself, but…”

He shakes his head, unsure how to end his thought when Maki picks it up for him. “But you have nothing to defend yourself with.”

Kaede presses her hands her face in frustration, but doesn’t say anything more other than, “This is a trap—why will none of you listen?”

Momota sighs. “So,” he says. “Akamatsu’s the mastermind and—and Maki killed Kokichi. Shirogane, is that enough mysteries solved for you?”

“I, um,” she wrings her hands. “I suppose it is.”

“Wait,” Tenko says suddenly. “Ah, is it alright if Tenko asks a question?”

“Chabashira?” Hoshi says. “Something… off to you?”

She bites her lip as she shifts slightly from foot to foot. “Tenko isn’t sure about that, and she also knows she wasn’t there for the Flashback Light, so maybe she’s just confused, but which killing game was Amami-san in?”

The room goes dead quiet as the others stare at her in complete astonishment. Shirogane is the first to recover, stammering, “I-I’m sorry, what?”

“Tenko isn’t sure if this is exactly related, but before we go any further,” she says. “Tenko thinks it might help her understand if someone told her which killing game Amami-san was in.”

Shirogane keeps staring at her. She finds herself saying again, “What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I certainly didn't manage to finish this fic by its anniversary, haha. For those who don't know, I've been studying abroad for the past few month and it's kept me more busy than I anticipated, so I've slowly been chipping away at this chapter and a few other projects whenever I had downtime, which also unfortunately means I don't think I can say for certain when the next chapter will be ready, though hopefully it will take less time than this one did, haha. 
> 
> Also, I do hate to say this, especially since I know it's coming from a place of encouragement/excitement, but please do not leave comments asking when the next update will be or if I've given up on this fic. Again, I know they're coming from a very well intended place, but also remember I didn't write a 300k fic just to give it up at the end, haha.


	34. Trial XI

Everyone stares at Tenko in stunned silence for a moment more. She fidgets under their gazes, though doesn’t seem inclined to say more without any prompting.

Shirogane’s still trying to find her bearings when Kaede speaks up. “Tenko-san,” she says. “What are you talking about?”

“Um, Tenko isn’t sure how else to phrase it,” she says. “Tenko just… she was just thinking about what everyone told her about the Flashback Light and… how Amami-san fits into that.”

“Ch-Chabashira-san,” Shirogane says, regaining her composure. “What do you mean? Amami-kun was just a student like us, right everyone?”

“He’s…” Hoshi says. “He’s like Ouma, or anyone else. Don’t remember anything special about anyone besides Akamatsu.”

Tenko frowns. “But that doesn’t make sense.”

“What about it doesn’t make sense?” Shirogane says.

Maki sighs. “Perhaps someone should actually go over what the Flashback Light showed us again. Chabashira is obviously having a difficult time comprehending something.”

“Guess I can do that,” Hoshi says before turning to Tenko. “Already told you most of this, but basically a long time ago, there was a school called Hope’s Peak. Then Enoshima Junko—the Ultimate Despair—and her cult—the Remnants of Despair—started, well,” he sighs, “would call it the apocalypse but earth somehow came back from that. Current apocalypse outside started later.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “How does any of that relate to Amami-kun?”

“No idea,” Hoshi says. “Anyway, Enoshima setup a killing game like the one we’re in now with students from the original Hope’s Peak. But then she died, the survivors escaped, and a group called the Future Foundation started putting the world together, beginning by rounding up the Remnants of Despair.”

“It, um,” Shirogane says. “Gets a little weird after that. Maybe this is the part you’re having trouble understanding, Chabashira-san? When the Remnants of Despair got put into a program world and a killing game was held among them?”

Tenko shakes her head. “No, Tenko knows all of that. The new Hope’s Peak was established and we all applied to be students, right?”

“Yeah,” Hoshi says. “That’s all we know, so afraid you’re gonna have to tell us how Amami fits into that.”

Tenko shifts from foot to foot, pausing for a second to gather her thoughts. “The second killing game,” she says eventually. “Was with Remnants of Despair… like Kaede-san, right? And you didn’t remember anything special about Amami-san being a Remnant of Despair, so… he probably wasn’t there.”

“These events also happened years ago,” Maki says. “Any of us being there is impossible.”

“That’s what Tenko thought…” she says. “And there were no other killing games between those and the one we’re in, right?”

“Right,” Shirogane says. “Is there a problem with that?”

Tenko bites her lip. “But the video Tenko saw of Amami-san… he said he survived a killing game before. That’s why he was the Ultimate Survivor.”

“The what?” Kaede says.

“‘Ultimate Survivor?’” Maki asks. “Where did you hear that? What video was this?”

“You might wanna start from the beginning, Chabashira,” Hoshi says. “Seems like you have a lot more information than the rest of us.”

“Okay,” Tenko nods. “Um, Tenko knows she wasn’t supposed to, but she went to go check on Kaede-san after everyone told her about the Flashback Light. And when she went to go see her, Ouma-san gave her some instructions.”

Momota looks up at her. “Kokichi… gave you something? Do you still have it?”

“No,” Tenko says carefully. “Tenko got knocked out last night—she thinks someone came up behind her and forced her to smell something… and when she woke up the note was gone.”

“Chabashira-san,” Shirogane says. “Why did you keep all of this secret until now?”

“Because Ouma-san said not to tell anyone,” she says. “But… he’s not here anymore, so Tenko thinks maybe she should since,” her gaze briefly flickers to Momota, “it was one of the last things he did.”

Momota runs a hand through his hair but otherwise doesn’t respond. Kaede says, “I remember him giving you a piece of paper, but he never told me what it was.”

“Is Ouma-kun’s note where you got this information from?” Shirogane asks. “If that’s the case we might want, um, to be careful with completely believing it then. Since, well, it _is_ Ouma-kun.”

“It was the last thing Kokichi wrote,” Momota says with a grave finality. “It’s his will.”

Shirogane shrinks in on herself at the reproach. “Oh, ah, I didn’t mean that we shouldn’t hear it at all or anything…”

“Think we’ve talked around this enough,” Hoshi says. “Chabashira—what’d the note say?”

“It said,” Tenko begins, “to go to Amami-san’s lab on the fifth floor and bring an electrohammer to protect against Monokuma if he tried anything. But, um, Tenko was pretty nervous and after she went inside, she kinda freaked out and might have used it on nothing…”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “Wanted you to go to Amami-kun’s lab? We already investigated that earlier, but… he did have kind of a fixation on it, at least, he was interested enough that he blew the door to it open.”

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko doesn’t really know about that—the directions just told her the combination to the safe so… she opened it.”

“And inside was this video?” Maki says. “So that’s what you were doing on the fifth floor…”

Kaede scowls up at the Exisal. “You were the one who attacked Tenko-san. Don’t even try to deny it.”

“You know what she was doing up there, then?” Hoshi asks Maki. “Also, were you the one who grabbed the note off her?”

“I had no idea Chabashira was going to be on the fifth floor,” Maki says. “I heard her making a racket when I was preparing my arrows in Saihara’s lab. I knew if I wanted to avoid a fight, I’d have to knock her out and the chemicals were an easy convenience. It was pure chance we were there at the same time.”

Shirogane wrings her hands. “And the note? Were you the one who took it or—”

“No,” Maki says. “I had no idea what she was doing up there, let alone that she was carrying instructions apparently to one of the school’s secrets around.”

Kaede narrows her eyes. “Is that really true?”

“Do you have evidence to prove otherwise?” Maki says.

“Do you have evidence to prove you’re telling the truth?” Kaede fires back.

Maki’s voice sounds incredulous. “Are you asking me to produce the absence of a piece of paper to show that I’m not lying?”

Hoshi sighs. “We can argue about that later. Chabashira—you found a video in the safe in Amami’s lab. And that video said he was… the Ultimate Survivor?”

“What does a talent like that mean?” Shirogane says. “Y-You don’t think there’s a chance that video was just another one of Monokuma’s tricks?”

“As unreliable a source of information as Chabashira is,” Maki says. “I doubt Monokuma would hide something he’d want to use to torment us behind a reinforced steel safe with a combination we don’t know.”

Shirogane falters. “Oh. Um, I guess that is a good point…”

“Chabashira,” Momota says. “Did Kokichi say how he got the combination?”

“No,” Tenko says. “The note didn’t say where Ouma-san got his information. Actually it said,” she scowls, “‘you’re probably too stupid to find where the combination is hidden in the school so I’ll give you a freebie.’ And then the codes Tenko needed were written after that.”

Momota gives her a half smile. “He took the time to write all that out. Guess he… is always himself, no matter what’s happening.”

Maki says, “Momota—” before cutting herself off abruptly. “Chabashira—keep going. You opened the safe and you found a video?”

“That’s right,” Tenko says. “Um, well, actually Tenko found a flash drive to use on the laptop in Amami-san’s lab, but either way, there was a video on it of… Amami-san in his lab.”

“That doesn’t…” Kaede trails off, brow furrowed in deep concentration. “His lab wasn’t opened until Ouma-kun used the Exisals.”

“Right,” Shirogane says. “And the stairs up to the fifth floor didn’t even exist when Amami-kun was still with us. Most of the second floor didn’t even exist at that point. I mean, the school stopped being under construction only very recently, you know?”

Hoshi says, “that… does seem strange. Chabashira, are you sure the video was of him in his lab?”

Tenko nods. “Tenko doesn’t know any other place in the school with creepy red walls like that.”

“If Chabashira-san’s absolutely sure,” Shirogane takes a deep breath. “Then I think there are only two possibilities.”

“What are you talking about?” Kaede says. 

“I-I mean two possibilities for how a video like that could exist,” Shirogane clarifies. “Amami-kun couldn’t have recorded anything in his lab while he was alive—”

Maki says, “Shirogane, if you say Amami is a ghost I am going to shoot you.”

Shirogane holds up her hands defensively. “I-I promise I wasn’t. I just was going to say that the video either has to be fake or… maybe Amami-kun plainly wasn’t who he said he was when we first met him.”

Kaede stares at her wide eyed. “What?”

Shirogane looks around, gauging the others’ reaction to her words. “Um, if you guys don’t mind, maybe I could try explaining my thinking?”

“Tenko… would like to hear it,” Tenko says. “And she supposes it’s only fair we discuss it since Tenko was the one who brought it up.”

“I want to hear it, too,” Momota says. “I… don’t want to let any of this go.”

Maki adds after a moment, “I guess we’re in agreement then. Shirogane?”

Shirogane swallows, eyes still lingering on the Exisal’s heavy weaponry as she begins.

_(Present your Argument)_

“The video Tenko found,” Tenko says, “showed Amami-san in his lab. Tenko knows that is strange but… what does that mean about Amami-san?”

“We already established that he couldn’t have gotten into his lab earlier,” Maki says. “Unless something else happened then we weren’t aware of.”

“Knowing this school,” Hoshi says. “Say there’s a pretty high chance of that.”

“But,” Kaede says. “Amami-kun never said anything about his lab or recording a video or anything, right? I mean, we know he had information we didn’t about the Ultimate Hunt so maybe he knew some other things too…”

Momota shakes his head, “but why would he share that with us and not all this other crap?”

“The reason why Amami would hide this from us,” Maki says. “Shirogane, is that what you’re getting at?”

“But he had no reason to hide anything,” Kaede asserts.

A sudden flash of realization moves across Tenko’s face, but she remains silent, biting her lip.

_(BREAK)_

“Everyone,” Shirogane says. “Think about what you said—there’s plainly only one reason why Amami-kun wouldn’t tell us such important information about the layout of the school or his talent or if… was or was not in a previous killing game.”

“If you’re so sure,” Maki says. “Then spit it out already instead of trying to make a production out of it.”

Shirogane flinches. “I-I promise I wasn’t—oh, oh fine… um,” she recollects herself with a breath. “I just think the most plausible reason for Amami-kun’s behavior is that, well, he must have been in league with the mastermind.”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “What?”

Tenko fidgets, shifting from foot to foot. “Amami-san was…” she looks down again, still chewing on her lip. 

Kaede seems too distraught to notice Tenko’s reaction as she shouts, “That’s—that’s not possible! Amami-kun, he—he died trying to stop the killing game, right? He told us all he’d do everything to end it, and then he was trying to get into the mastermind’s lair, so obviously—”

“But then he was killed by the supposed mastermind,” Maki says. Kaede glares up at her, but Maki continues undisturbed. “Your theory has a few holes, Shirogane.”

“Didn’t we already decide back at Saihara’s trial that Amami couldn’t have been the mastermind,” Hoshi says. “He didn’t have a cardkey or anything on him that could have gotten him into the room in the library. So if he was an accomplice… you think he was just waiting outside to be let in by the real mastermind or something?”

Momota frowns. “That sounds… really stupid. Also,” he shakes his head. “Finding any leads on the identity of the mastermind has been hell—would they really do something that could get them caught that easily?”

“That is a good point,” Shirogane says. “But maybe it was less Amami-kun trying to get into the secret room and more… maybe he was just waiting for the mastermind?”

“This all sounds like baseless speculation,” Maki says. “Do you have any evidence for this theory other than Amami potentially being in his lab before the game began?”

“I still think that’s pretty substantial evidence,” Shirogane says. “And I was going to say… what if Amami-kun was waiting in the library, but then he was betrayed?”

Kaede says, “Betrayed? By the mastermind? Why would the mastermind betray someone they were working with?”

“I’m… not too sure actually,” Shirogane says, shrinking back in on herself. “But, well, how else would you explain Amami-kun having access to the rest of the school and not telling us?”

“Well,” Maki says. “If we want to know why the mastermind would betray and kill their partner, we can just ask them. Akamatsu, why did—”

“I’m not the mastermind!” Kaede shouts, throwing her hands up in frustration. “And can I just say the stuff Tenko-san already pointed out about Amami-kun being in some weird third killing game makes the Flashback Light you guys saw saying I was the mastermind seem—I don’t know—wrong?”

Hoshi says, “not sure how to reconcile those things, have to admit, and,” he nods across the room towards Tenko, “speaking of Chabashira, seems like she’s got something else to say.”

Kaede whips her head at his words to see Tenko, still fidgeting restlessly. “Tenko-san? Is something the matter?”

Tenko starts at the sudden attention on her. “Uh, well, Tenko was just thinking more about the video she saw. Because in it,” she bites her lip, “Amami-san said that someone in the game already knew his true identity, and if he wasn’t careful someone would come after him.”

“That doesn’t sound like something an accomplice would say,” Momota says softly. 

“Akamatsu,” Maki says. “Did you know Amami-kun’s identity before you—”

“No,” Kaede says. “I didn’t. He told me he didn’t remember, and I believed him—I thought everyone did.”

“Not that this isn’t important,” Hoshi says. “But Chabashira, Amami said all that so… who was this video for?”

Tenko frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Ah, are you talking about the intended audience, Hoshi-kun?” Shirogane says. 

He nods. “Right. What Chabashira said sounded like a warning, so who was this warning supposed to go to?”

“Himself,” Tenko says, voice barely above a whisper. “At the beginning of the video… Amami-san started talking like he was speaking to himself but,” she pauses, furrowing her brow as she debates how to phrase her next words, “it sounded to Tenko like Amami-san was talking to… a version of himself that he knew would lose his memories.”

“Amami,” Momota says. “Knew? He knew Monokuma was gonna give us fucking amnesia?”

“B-But wait,” Kaede stammers. “Amami-kun knew we were going to lose our memories and that someone would target him or something a-and—and,” she throws her hands up, becoming increasingly agitated, “all he did was record a fucking video for himself!?”

Shirogane nods along, adding, “if he knew about that beforehand, too, that, well, that kinda adds to the theory that maybe Amami-kun was working with the mastermind, right?”

“Tenko is… unsure,” she says. 

“How can you be ‘unsure?’” Maki says. “Is there more to this video you’re not telling us?”

Tenko frowns, staring up at the Exisal, not intimidated in the slightest. “Tenko isn’t hiding information, if that’s what you’re trying to say.” 

“She’s right,” Hoshi says. “Chabashira, keep going—we won’t jump on you this time before you can finish explaining.”

Tenko’s unsure gaze shifts to him. “Thank you, Hoshi-san,” she says stiffly before taking a deep breath. “In the video Tenko found, Amami-san seemed to be addressing himself, and he said stuff about how he had survived a killing game before, which is why Tenko was confused about when that happened since there were only two killing games before this one. So… she wasn’t sure which one of those he participated in.”

“I believe our working answer to that is ‘neither,’” Maki says. “Which only raises more questions we still need to work out. Continue.”

Tenko scowls at the direction but follows it without further protest. “Amami-san also mentioned what Tenko said earlier about someone who knew who he was coming after him and then,” she frowns, “he also talked about something he had when he first came here, but Tenko has no idea what that could be.”

“We didn’t find anything out of the ordinary on his body when he died,” Shirogane says. “So maybe he left this, um, ‘something’ in his room?”

“We can check after the trial,” Kaede says with a pointed glare towards Maki. “Assuming this trial has an end.”

“It will,” Maki says. 

Tenko looks between them, unsure for a moment before saying, “and there was one more thing—and Tenko thinks this might… answer our questions about Amami-san maybe being involved with the killing game.”

“Did he address the mastermind?” Shirogane says excitedly. “O-Or talk about any of their secrets? Or maybe a way to get out?”

“No,” Tenko says. “Nothing like that. Amami-san tried to talk about, um, Tenko thinks it was the two person graduation rule when it suddenly seemed like he got in trouble and said that he apparently wasn’t allowed to talk about that.”

“He was being monitored?” Momota says. “So the mastermind was watching him or something?”

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko doesn’t know—Amami-san was the only person in the video.”

“But he was already under someone’s control at that point,” Maki says. “So he probably was just a regular participant like us.”

“Tenko thinks he might have been a little special,” she says. “The last important thing Tenko thinks, is that Amami-san said that the video and the extra something where his, um, ‘Survivor Perks’ for surviving a previous killing game.”

“Which brings us back to why the hell none of this makes sense in the first place,” Hoshi says, pulling on his hat.

“That’s right,” Kaede says. “And according to Amami-kun’s account in the video Tenko-san found, the stuff we know about the killing games has to be false.”

Shirogane shakes her head. “But that can’t be right. I just… I _know_ that can’t be right.”

“Why do you sound so sure?” Maki asks

“Because,” Shirogane says, taking a deep breath. “Because I—I can prove it. Just, please, give me a chance.”

Kaede gives her a wary look. “Do you have… proof?”

“I have an argument at the very least,” she says.

Kaede frowns but says, “Shirogane-san, I know the Flashback Light was lying. Why do you doubt me so much?”

“It’s not that I doubt you,” Shirogane says. “But just… will you listen to what I have to say?”

Kaede pauses for a moment, fiddling with her hat. Then, “Fine, but I’m telling you, no matter what it is, that Flashback Light was still wrong, and I’m still not the mastermind.”

“That… may be so,” Shirogane concedes as they begin a new discussion.

_(Present you Argument)_

“What you guys saw in the Flashback Light,” Kaede says. “It conflicts with what Tenko-san said about Amami-kun, right? And we can’t just ignore that.”

“There’s a chance Chabashira is lying to protect Akamatsu,” Maki says. “But if that is the case, I can’t imagine why she would go to the trouble to make such a complicated story.”

“I say we believe Chabashira,” Hoshi says. “After everything she’s done up till now, think she deserves the benefit of the doubt.”

“Tenko… thanks you for the support,” she says, still uncomfortable. 

“Then,” Momota says. “The Flashback Light… just left out the stuff about Amami? Is that possible?”

Kaede shakes her head. “Why would Monokuma bother to let you remember the first two killing games and then leave out another?”

“Maybe there’s still another mystery there,” Hoshi says. “And he wants us to all find the answer for his own amusement.”

“Or maybe,” Tenko says. “The last Flashback Light… wasn’t true?”

“And the other ones were?” Maki asks. “Was these something special about this one?”

“Tenko doesn’t know,” Tenko says. “But if all the Flashback Lights aren’t true then…”

“We don’t know anything about our situation,” Momota says. “And we’ve been fucking lied to this whole time.”

_(BREAK)_

“I think that’s it,” Shirogane says. “Harukawa-san, what you were saying—I think that this is the only Flashback Light that wasn’t true.”

Maki pauses for a moment, her words guarded when she finally says, “what makes you so sure of that?”

“Well, um,” Shirogane says. “The day we found it—er, I mean, how we found it.”

Momota snorts. “Was just lying there on the table when me and Maki went to the cafeteria that morning.”

“And we all thought that was strange, didn’t we?” Shirogane prompts. “That after having to search the school for each Flashback Light before, one was just plainly handed to us.”

“That is… odd,” Hoshi concedes. 

“So what?” Kaede says. “Do you think that one was tampered with or something? But who would do that? Who here even has the ability to do that?”

“Akamatsu,” Maki says. “Assuming you’re not suddenly arguing for your own guilt, are you saying you believe all the Flashback Lights are fake?”

The question isn’t as accusatory as Maki’s previous address to Kaede, and she narrows her eyes searchingly as she gazes up at the Exisal. “I’m… not sure,” she says. “Why are you asking me something like that?”

Maki again goes quiet for a moment then. “I just wanted to know where everyone stood on the matter.”

“Maki,” Momota says. “What are you—”

“It’s fine,” she says. “Anyway, I believe we can agree with Shirogane at least for the moment. The last Flashback Light was… faulty.”

Hoshi gives the towering machine at his side a dubious look. “You’re giving up that easily?” 

“Do you think differently?” Maki asks back.

“No,” he says. “Think what you said is our easiest option.”

“‘Easiest option?’” Shirogane parrots, trying to keep her voice even in spite of the panic slowly coiling over her. The trial is about to end. There’s so little else left to draw out. 

Hoshi shrugs in response. “With what Chabashira said, we know the Flashback Light was wrong—there’s not much of a debate there. Next question is if every Flashback Light was a lie or not, and if they were,” he pulls a cigarette from his pocket seemingly for the sole purpose of fiddling with it. “Then we have even less information about the outside world than we thought.”

Momota frowns. “So you’re saying it’s easier on us to just… believe for the hell of it?”

Hoshi’s gaze shifts to him. “Strange hearing that from you.”

Momota clenches his jaw. “Do you have a fucking problem with me now, too?”

Hoshi regards him for a moment longer before returning his attention to his cigarette. “Not sure if you want me to answer that honestly. But the point is we should just leave this here for now. It’s probably for the best.”

Shirogane’s eyes dart between him and Maki, deeply unsure about what is happening and half desperately wondering if she could convince Hoshi to speak a little more on it somehow when Tenko speaks up. “Tenko still has one problem with the Flashback Light,” she says.

“Oh, Chabashira-san,” Shirogane says. “Did you remember one more thing about Amami-kun?”

“No, it’s not—Tenko doesn’t know anymore about Amami-san,” she says. “Tenko wanted to know… why would someone use a fake Flashback Light to frame Kaede-san?”

Shirogane nods, eager for the new topic. “That is a good question—”

“I think I know,” Kaede says, renewed authority in her voice. “The time limit was ending and none of us were going to do anything, and the mastermind couldn’t have that. So,” she stares straight up at Maki. “The mastermind planted it to force a murder with me as the intended victim, and Harukawa-san fell for their trap.”

Maki’s voice doesn’t falter for a moment as she evenly responds, “is that so?”

“I—” Kaede cuts herself off, suddenly looking enraged. “What do you mean ‘is that so!?’ You—you were tricked and killed someone for no reason, and that’s all you can say!?”

“I believe I’ve said everything else I could on the matter,” Maki says. 

Kaede grips the edges of her podium, fury in her eyes, but before she can bite out another response, Momota says, “Maki… is that true?”

“Momota?”

There’s an odd expression on his face, and his gaze remains trained on the ground. “It’s just,” he furrows his brow. “Before all this shit… you kept saying over and over that you weren’t gonna let yourself be tricked.”

Maki pauses, then sighs. “But it seems that what’s happened has happened. And when an assassin fails their mission, they are punished.”

“Maki, you’re not just gonna let yourself—”

“No,” she says. “I never planned to just lay down my life. Maybe I will die, but I’m not about to simply let it happen without doing something to stop the killing game.”

Momota speaks to her more, more pleading, more kind words, but across the room, past Hoshi’s odd silence, past Shirogane’s strange fretting, Kaede hears something she doesn’t think she was supposed to in Maki’s words. Something that lifts her out of the strange angry fog that had clouded her since she stepped foot into the trial room. Her mind still dutifully repeats that Maki is guilty at the slight challenge. That Maki is the kind of person who would commit murder without a second thought. And yet…

Shirogane speaks up. “W-Well,” she says. “Is there anything else left? Anyone notice anything or maybe have any other questions or evidence?”

“Tenko thinks she already shared everything she found,” Tenko offers. 

“And no one else investigated,” Hoshi says, a conflicted expression still on his face.

Kaede sees Shirogane look around beseechingly at the others, and though there’s a slight doubt running through her mind, Kaede remains quiet when her desperate eyes pass over her. Maki says, “Then I suppose it’s time to—”

“Actually,” Shirogane says hurriedly, reaching into her pocket. “I did find one thing during the investigation. I’m, um, not sure exactly if it’s evidence, so I wouldn’t be comfortable just throwing it down and shouting ‘take that!’ or anything but… we should still plainly look over it?”

Kaede looks at her to see a small piece of familiar cloth like fabric that even at her distance from Shirogane she can identify as something that was once white but is now thoroughly stained with blood. “What,” Kaede says. “Is that?”

Tenko seems to regard it carefully, too, furrowing her brow as she says, “Tenko doesn’t think she saw anything like that in the hanger.”

“I found it in the bathroom,” Shirogane says. “It was in the sink under a few rags that, er, I think were used to try and clean the press.”

Momota winces at her words, and Maki quickly speaks over his reaction. “One of the tags likely fell off one of the washcloths due to overuse. Sometimes garbage is just garbage.”

“You think it’s important, Shirogane?” Momota says in spite of Maki’s words. “That it had… something to do with Kokichi?”

“I’m not sure,” she replies. “But I don’t know—it seemed… out of place to me at the time.”

“Can I take a look?” Hoshi asks. 

Shirogane seems a bit startled at his question, and casts a brief weary eye to Monokuma for permission before she hurries off of her podium to place it in Hoshi’s small hand before scurrying back. 

“Well,” he says after what Kaede thinks is approximately two seconds of inspection. “Not much of a mystery. It’s gauze that got covered in dried blood.”

“‘Gauze?’” Shirogane says. “It was something that simple?”

Hoshi shrugs. “Seen a lot of the stuff lately.”

Shirogane seems crestfallen. “Oh, then it probably isn’t a clue, huh?”

“Why do you say that?” Kaede says.

Shirogane blinks at her. “Um, well, because you were there in the hanger for a long time—I guess with your injuries, I just assumed that it was plainly left over from you changing the bandages on your arm or something.” She wrings her hands. “Is that… not right?”

Kaede shakes her head. “No, it’s not. I was only there for a day, and when Tenko-san came to see me to bring supplies, she only ever brought more painkillers.”

“That is true,” Tenko agrees. “Though Kaede-san should really change the bandages on her arm after the trial since she didn’t while she was in the hanger.”

“It’s garbage,” Maki says again. 

Kaede opens her mouth, and Shirogane beats her out by fractions of a second to stammer, “I-Is it?” as accusingly as she can.

Momota frowns. “What the hell is happening?”

“I think they’re using garbage to get a confession out of me that I’ve already given,” Maki replies. “But if you want to make a mystery out of nothing, then there’s nothing I can do to stop your idiocy. Though,” she pauses, “you should know that you don’t need to pry into everything that you don’t understand—I would think everyone here would have learned that after the last trial.”

Kaede tugs at her hat, puzzling over the contradictory message in Maki’s words not to go further even as they confirm her suspicions. But Shirogane speaks up before she can find any immediate answers. “I don’t think we can afford to let mysteries go unsolved here. We are in a class trial, after all.”

Maki sighs. “I don’t know why I expected you to listen. Fine then—knock yourself out.”

With her resigned go ahead, Shirogane adjusts her glasses and has a strange determination in her eyes than Kaede can't remember the other girl ever having before this trial. 

_(Present your Argument)_

“Let’s establish the facts,” Shirogane says. “Akamatsu-san, the piece of gauze I found doesn’t belong to you, right?”

“No,” Kaede says. “It doesn’t.”

“Maybe part of her bandages just fell off or something,” Momota says.

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko thinks that is unlikely.”

“The piece looks like it was cut off of something,” Hoshi says. “Doubt anyone could just accidentally do that without noticing.”

“Ouma had an absurd amount of ‘supplies’ in the hanger,” Maki says. “And by ‘supplies’ I mean trash. It came from there.”

“Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says. “Do you remember seeing anything like that when you were in the hanger?”

“No…” she says. “I don’t think so.”

Hoshi sighs. “If it wasn’t brought by Akamatsu or Ouma, then it was Harukawa. That’s the only other possibility.”

“Did Harukawa-san get hurt in the hanger?” Tenko asks.

The Exisal remains quiet. Momota says, “Maki?”

_(BREAK)_

“Hoshi-kun’s right,” Shirogane says. “The only possibility is that Harukawa-san brought it. And well,” she adjusts her glasses confidently. “Hoshi-kun also said it looked like it had been cut off of something, so that means it was probably part of a bigger piece that she used for something.”

Momota asks, “Maki, did you really… bring something like that to the hanger?”

“I was prepared for anything,” she answers flatly. “And that included being injured.”

“Shirogane-san just said it was used,” Kaede says. “So you were hurt?”

“Yes,” Maki says. “I was.”

“By Ouma-kun?” Shirogane asks. “But how could someone like him attack—”

“Momota did it,” Maki says. “He mentioned it earlier and Akamatsu can also testify that we got into a fight in the hanger. It was just a few scratches at best, but I had the supplies and saw no reason not to treat the injuries.”

Momota clenches his jaw. “Maki…”

“Oh,” Shirogane sounds disappointed. “Is that plainly all it was?”

Kaede thinks. Most of that night in the hanger had been a pain addled blur, especially everything immediately after her getting shot. And yet… but before she can say anything else, Momota asks, “did I really do that?”

“Yes,” Maki says. “You did.”

He seems troubled but goes quiet again at Maki’s clipped reply. Kaede studies him, trying to see if Momota will somehow give up the answers that the faceless metal of the Exisal won’t. Kaede doesn’t even know exactly what’s bothering her or what she’s looking for, but part of her almost instinctually feels she needs to keep Maki talking even as talk of the vote becomes to stir up again. And she also realizes she’s currently staring at the solution to her problem. 

Kaede feels a sick guilt twist in her stomach and she can only think _sorry Momota-kun_ before she presses forward. “Harukawa-san,” she says. “Are you really sure you’re okay with us just voting for you? I mean, you know what will happen.”

“Akamatsu,” Maki begins as if talking to a particularly slow child. “We have been over this at least a dozen times now already. I think everyone is well aware.”

“I know,” she says. “But this just isn’t about you—you remember what happened when Iruma-san tried to fight back against her execution, right?”

“I-Is that going to happen again?” Shirogane stammers.

Maki doesn’t answer her immediately, and Kaede continues, saying, “Maybe being inside the Exisal will protect you from whatever happens, but what about the rest of us?”

“I already said I don’t care about—”

“No,” Kaede says. “That’s not true. Maybe you’re fine with me dying, but all of us?”

“Akamatsu,” Momota says. “Stop fucking—”

Maki says, “I’ll do what I need to if that happens.”

“Do you really think you can?” Kaede says. “You said yourself we don’t know what Monokuma’s capable of, and that also with the amount of injuries—with who’s injured—would you really be able to protect hi—”

Momota growls, “I said stop. Leave her the fuck alone already—”

“Because if you’re tricking us or trying to do anything to get out of being executed,” Kaede says. “You know exactly who you’re putting in danger.”

“Shut up! Just shut up!”

“Momota,” Maki says. “Calm down. Akamatsu’s only doing this because she wants something. So what is it?”

Despite her own pushing, Kaede finds herself blinking at the question. “You’re just…” she frowns. “What are you doing?”

“I’m asking you what you want,” Maki says. “Would you like me to repeat myself a few dozen more times so we can extend this trial like you suddenly seem so intent on doing?”

“No, it’s fine,” Shirogane says, speaking for her. “Akamatsu-san, is there something you wanted to ask Harukawa-san?”

Kaede fiddles with the brim of her hat at the sudden support. Simply asking Maki to keep speaking so she can find some error to let her actually figure out what’s wrong isn’t a possibility. But something, she knows from enough practice solving mysteries, is wrong. “I want to know,” she says. “Why you broke into my room earlier.”

“Oh, that,” Maki says. “I wanted to find more clues regarding the mastermind and what they were capable of before attempting an assault on them. Part of any assassination is gathering information on your target first.”

Momota, of all people, again seems unsettled by her testimony. “Maki?”

And she still answers as calmly as ever, “Yes?”

“Nothing,” he says after a short pause. “Guess just… that was all for nothing.”

“Okay, so,” Shirogane says, again startling Kaede. “I might not be a detective, but even I know that plainly sounds suspicious. Momota-kun, do you know something?”

Momota doesn’t answer, and Tenko hesitantly adds, “Harukawa-san talked with Momota-san before the trial. Tenko thinks… maybe Harukawa-san told him what happened?”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says excitedly before suddenly deflating. “But… nothing was taken. At least that’s what Akamatsu-san said earlier, right?”

“Right…” Kaede says.

“Because I didn’t find anything that linked you to the mastermind in anyway,” Maki says. “I assumed at the time it was hidden somewhere else, though if you really are innocent, I suppose that would also account for that.”

“Wait so,” Kaede says. “You broke into my room to try and find evidence that I was the mastermind, found nothing, and still decided to go after me?”

Shirogane nods. “That is strange. And what about Ouma-kun’s room? You said earlier you didn’t think he was the mastermind, didn’t you?”

“I said I didn’t care if he was related,” Maki says. “I still decided to check his room since he was in the hanger.”

Hoshi sighs. “Guess it’s getting kinda obvious to everyone, but Harukawa’s lying.”

“Hoshi-kun?” Kaede says. “Do you know something?”

“Yeah,” he says. “It’s what’s been bothering me for a while now, but wasn’t sure how it was important to anything.” He glances up at the Exisal. “Now that Harukawa’s directly lying about it, starting to think it might be related somehow.”

Maki remains quiet at the accusation. Tenko says, “Hoshi-san was the only person who was in the dorms for the entire night. Tenko was with him earlier, but she didn’t hear or see Harukawa-san breaking into any rooms before she left.”

“I was there until Akamatsu-san and Momota-kun left the hanger,” Shirogane says. “But… I don’t think I heard anything either.”

“Which is because,” Hoshi says. “Harukawa’s lying about when she broke into the rooms.”

“She didn’t do it before she went to the hanger?” Kaede asks. 

He shakes his head. “Heard sounds of someone trying to break down a few doors last night, and it was after Shirogane left.”

“So,” Kaede says. “Harukawa-san has to be lying about why she did it, too. Because if it was after she killed Ouma-kun, then…” she frowns. “Why would you break into his room at that point?”

Maki and Momota both remain silent, though Kaede can see the latter wince at her words. Again, Shirogane is the one to answer her. “I’m not sure,” she says. “But I think this is definitely something we should talk more about. After all, if Harukawa-san was trying to cover it up, then it’s probably important somehow.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “I think so, too.”

“And then we can figure out the secret behind Ouma-kun’s death,” Shirogane says.

“Secret?” Momota says. “I already told you there is no…” he trails off, furrowing his brow in thought. Then he shakes his head, “I don’t care about the ‘why’ anymore. Can we just stop talking about this?”

“Oh, Momota-kun,” Shirogane says. “I think you know that isn’t a possibility anymore.”

He stares up at her slightly dumbfounded, and it’s all Kaede can do over her own confusion to keep the conversation moving.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Last night,” Kaede says. “Harukawa-san broke into my room and Ouma-kun’s room, and it happened after the murder.”

“And Harukawa-san lied about when it happened, but,” Tenko bites her lip. “Nothing was taken… so why did she do it?”

“Harukawa-san clearly lied about her motive earlier!” Shirogane shouts.

“Was alone in the dorms when it happened,” Hoshi says. “Sounded like she was in a panic trying to get the doors open. Was probably urgent then.”

“But Ouma-san…” Tenko says. “He was already dead at that point. What would Harukawa-san need after she killed him?”

“Well whatever it was,” Momota says suddenly. “She obviously didn’t find it, right?”

Shirogane flinches at the outburst. “No, I guess not…”

_(BREAK)_

“Wait,” Kaede says. “Hoshi-kun, you’re the only witness to Harukawa-san leaving the hanger, right? Did you see anything or anyone else that night after Shirogane-san left and before we all came back to the dorms later?”

He fiddles with his cigarette in thought. “Well, during the night, I didn’t even see Harukawa. Was still stuck in the room, so I was basing everything off of what I heard, but her trying to take a few doors off their hinges made a pretty big racket. So,” he sighs. “No, that’s the only thing I heard when I was alone.”

“Okay,” Kaede says. “I think that’s still okay. If you can remember, did it sound like more than one person? Like was there any talking?”

“No,” Hoshi says. “Only heard one loud set of footsteps.”

“I see,” Kaede says. “So that was another lie.”

“Um,” Tenko says. “Tenko’s confused. What was a lie?”

Shirogane nods eagerly. “Right, let’s go back to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

“Well,” Kaede says. “I just think it’s strange that Harukawa-san would go alone. I mean, Momota-kun helped me up to the fifth floor, but he went back down to the hanger to try to give Ouma-kun the antidote pretty quickly. And, Hoshi-kun, you never heard him return to the dorms, right?”

“Actually,” he says. “Thought it was Momota coming back to the dorms that night until I heard it was apparently Harukawa the next morning. Don’t have your hearing, but the footsteps sounded too—”

“It was me,” Momota says. “I was the one who broke into Akamatsu and Kokichi’s rooms.”

Kaede frowns at him. “Momota-kun, are you lying again?”

“No,” he snaps. “I’m not. That night after I fucked up giving the antidote to Maki, she told me to try and find some shit in your rooms and that if I did…” he sighed, “the antidote was already gone, but she said she’d let Kokichi go, and I just… I had to do _something_.”

“Why are you telling them all that?” Maki says.

Momota runs a hand through his hair. “Maki, you know it doesn’t fucking matter. They’re gonna figure it out, and,” he shakes his head. “I don’t even know why you told me to keep it secret. That or Iruma’s lab.”

Tenko’s the first to react to his words, parroting, “‘Iruma-san’s lab?’”

“Yeah,” he says. “Maki wanted some crap from there.”

“Like what?” Shirogane asks.

“Momota,” Maki says. “That’s enough.”

Momota scowls. “Maki, just—just be honest with me: why? Why is it a secret? Why can’t you just tell me what’s happening? We made a promise that we would trust each other.”

“This isn’t about that,” she responds tersely. “This isn’t about me and you—this is about the killing game.”

“And I don’t know what that means!” he shouts. “I don’t know what any of this means other than that you keep lying and hurting people and I don’t get it! And I’m trying—” he runs a hand through his hair, “I’m trying to help you, but you just keep lying, and I know I fucking lied, too, and shit, but I just don’t understand.”

Maki pauses. Momota sighs, the earlier energy falling fast away from it. “Forget it. You don’t have to answer.”

“No, I will,” she says finally. 

Kaede snaps to attention at her words. “Harukawa-san?”

“I suppose Momota’s right—being direct is the only way to deal with this,” Maki says. “So I’ll be blunt. This is between me and Monokuma, and the only person you’re helping by asking questions is the mastermind.”

Kaede narrows her eyes in concentration, as if trying to physically get a closer look at Maki’s words. She had said herself so many times before that holding trials and playing the game was exactly what the mastermind wanted out of them, but there, staring at Maki and the memory of the night before, Kaede can’t see the same truth quite as easily. Maki’s a killer trying to weasel out of her crime, Kaede thinks. But she also thinks, _is that right?_

Then, Shirogane says, “Harukawa-san, are you lying to us again? Just—after everything, you’re trying to trick us again, aren’t you? There is some big mystery behind Ouma-kun’s death, and you’re trying to manipulate us so we won’t find out what it is!”

Maki pauses, and Kaede finds herself oddly hanging onto whatever her response is going to be as Shirogane again prompts, “Well?”

“I suppose,” Maki says. “Asking you to trust me is out of the question at this point. But it’s fine. Any outcome is fine—stopping the trial now would be preferable, but even if we keep going, I’ve made my point.”

“Maki,” Momota says. “What? Are you just… trying to prove something to the mastermind? Is that why you killed Kokichi?”

“I killed him,” she says. “To prove that this game is a farce and Monokuma is a failure of a game master.”

Kaede feels near stunned by the sudden declaration, and Tenko voices one of her burning questions allowed, “the murder wasn’t about killing the mastermind?”

Monokuma, however, speaks over her. “Hey, hey, hey! What’s the big idea just insulting me out of the blue like that? Didn’t your mother ever teach you to at least fire a warning shot first?”

“Do you know who you’re talking to?” Maki asks.

“I could ask you the same question, missy!” He shouts back, raising his tiny paws in anger. “‘Failure?’ _Failure!_ Never in my life have I been cut by such words, and bears have nine lives, you know!”

“That’s cats,” Hoshi replies, completely deadpan. 

“And being so viciously insulted puts me in a catty mood, too, now that you mention it,” Monokuma says. “So I think I’m gonna take out my vengeance and ruin your cool and mysterious image.”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “You’re gonna… insult her back or something?”

Tenko nods. “It seems Harukawa-san was right—Monokuma is a failure.”

“Ah! To be bullied by my own class—and in my own court, too!” he whines. “No headmaster in their right mind would stand for this travesty!”

“So what are you going to do?” Shirogane asks. “Or are you just going to… sigh dramatically about it some more?”

“The time for sighing is over but the dramatics have just begun! In my epic plan to strike back,” Monokuma says. “I think I’ll reveal a teensy tiny bit of information to ensure this is a fair trial.”

“And what would that be?” Maki asks. 

His red eye gleams at her. “Oh, I think it’s only fair to share with the whole class exactly what was taken from the tragically deceased Iruma-san’s lab. And I have to admit,” he says with a shrug, “I don’t really get it either, so maybe you kids can help me out.”

“Help you out?” Kaede asks.

“This is exactly what I said,” Maki says. “Any help you give Monokuma is playing right into the mastermind’s hands. The only way to stop this is—”

“And our mystery object that was transported by Momota-kun to Harukawa-san last night isssss,” Monokuma draws out. “The head of our former Ultimate Robot!”

Kaede has to stop herself from physically taking a step back at the information. “W-What!? Kiibo-kun’s head!?”

Tenko gasps. “Kiibo-san—when Tenko found him in the hanger, Kiibo-san’s monopod wouldn’t turn on. Did Harukawa-san do something to him, too?”

“Momota,” Hoshi says. “Did you ask Harukawa about why should even want something like that?”

“Well, no, I mean,” Momota shrugs helplessly. “It seemed weird, yeah, but I was pretty desperate last night. I figured the more time I spent asking questions, the less time Kokichi had, especially since I had to go to his room first to get the key.”

“Momota,” Maki hisses. “Stop giving them information.”

Shirogane seems near frantic. “W-Wait hold on a second! So much there plainly doesn’t make any sense! First off, wouldn’t Kiibo-kun’s body be disposed of like everyone else’s?”

“Nope!” Monokuma chimes. “Because you see, following his ill-timed and very annoying death, Kiibo-kun was taken apart by Iruma-san in her lab during the investigation. At that point he became less corpse and more scrap metal, and I figured it’d be pretty hard to count a bunch of bolts as a student. So I let it slide, though it is a bit of gray area, I’ll admit.”

“‘Taken apart,’” Hoshi says. “So he was already disassembled when Momota went to the lab.”

“Yeah,” Momota says. “I’m good with tech stuff and crap, but taking off his fucking head without destroyed everything—that’s kinda beyond me.”

“Did Iruma-san really need to do all that to save Kiibo-san’s A.I.?” Tenko asks. “And what does poor Kiibo-san have to do with this case?”

Shirogane suddenly thrusts a finger in the direction of the Exisal. “Harukawa-san! What do you have to say for yourself!?”

“Nothing,” she says. “If you won’t listen to my warnings, there is nothing I can say.”

“But if you don’t argue,” Shirogane says. “Then how can we… how can we solve anything? How can we end this trial?”

“Shirogane-san,” Kaede says. “I think it’s okay.”

Shirogane blinks at her. “Akamatsu-san?”

“I think we already have the information we need,” she says. “Or at least, something was said that I really think we should talk out… because it might just be the answer to all of this.”

“And that would be?” Maki says, voice challenging. 

“Momota-kun,” Kaede says. “Can you tell us again what you said about when you went to get, um, Kiibo-kun’s head from Iruma-san’s lab?”

Momota frowns and looks to Maki as if the impassive face of the Exisal would give him an answer. “Um, Maki?”

Her only response is, “Trust me.”

Momota stares at her for a moment longer, then, “alright,” he lets out a deep breath. “Then I have nothing to say either. I didn’t plan on playing Monokuma’s game before the trial, and I’m not going to now.” He sends Kaede a withering glare. “You’re on your own, Akamatsu.”

Kaede feels her hands curl into fists. “Fine then. You don’t have to cooperate for me to still use your testimony. Everyone else, listen. Harukawa-san’s secret is more complicated than we though it was, and I think I know why.”

And in her determination Kaede doesn’t notice the slight smile curving over Shirogane’s face. 

_(Present your Argument)_

“Just now, Momota-kun said something that contradicts Harukawa-san’s story,” Kaede says. “And I don’t think he even realized it.”

“I wouldn’t betray Maki,” Momota snaps.

“Think it’s too late for that,” Hoshi mumbles.

“He said,” Shirogane says. “Um, that Harukawa-san asked him to bring her Kiibo-kun’s head for some reason?”

“Iruma-san had already taken him apart,” Tenko says. “But Tenko doesn’t understand what any of this has to do with Ouma-san or Harukawa-san.”

“Harukawa-san,” Shirogane says, deep in thought. “She wanted stuff from Akamatsu-san’s room, Ouma-kun’s room, and Iruma-san’s lab… but what for?”

“Momota didn’t ask apparently,” Hoshi says with a sigh. “Even if he did, though, doubt we’re getting that information anytime soon.”

“I’m not telling you anything,” Momota bites back. “I believe in Maki. This—there’s something fucked up about this.”

_(BREAK)_

“Nothing was taken from my room,” Kaede says. “But something was taken from Ouma-kun’s. Momota-kun said it earlier—he needed to get the key to Iruma-san’s lab.”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “Yeah? But that doesn’t prove anything,” he glances hesitantly to Maki. “Does it?”

“When did Iruma’s lab even get a lock?” Hoshi says.

“She built it herself,” Kaede says. “And you just made my point for me. Momota-kun, did you know about the lock beforehand or did Harukawa-san tell you?”

Momota stays quiet, still looking to Maki’s Exisal for guidance. Tenko says, “Momota-san? You didn’t know, did you?”

He opens and closes his mouth a few times before finally saying, “No. I didn’t. But it doesn’t matter. Right, Maki?”

“No, it does,” Kaede says. “Because Harukawa-san shouldn’t have known either. As far as I know, the only people who ever visited Iruma-san’s lab were me, Kiibo-kun, Ouma-kun, and Iruma-san, herself. So why did Harukawa-san know about the lock?”

Tenko suddenly frowns. “Um, Kaede-san? Is that… right? Tenko means, she didn’t know about the lock either but…”

Kaede turns to her, trying her best to convey to Tenko to not point out her blatant lie. “Iruma-san,” she says, choosing her words carefully. “Was pretty private about her stuff, especially after Ouma-kun stole her drone. And… she also didn’t exactly have a lot of friends, so I doubt someone as anti-social as Harukawa-san would just decide to pay her a visit.”

Maki remains silent in the face of her faulty accusation, and that is enough for Kaede to know there is something deeply, unsettlingly true about her hunch. After all, Kaede has few doubts that the real Maki would point out the time she carried Kiibo’s body all the way across the school to the place Kaede just claimed she had never been. 

But that was a faded memory, and Shirogane helps her once again, saying, “I see what you’re saying: the only people who should have known about the lock then would have been you, Ouma-kun, and Kiibo-kun. And it’s probably safe to say Akamatsu-san didn’t tell Harukawa-san about it.”

In spite of Shirogane’s words, Maki’s defense is addressed only to Kaede. “You’re lying. I don’t know how, but you are. Falsifying evidence to help the mastermind—just how far are you willing to go to keep this game going?”

“Haru… kawa-san?” Kaede says, taken aback.

Momota, instead, presents the argument Kaede was expecting. “Then Kokichi or Kiibo told her! They were both in the hanger, right? She probably fucking asked Kiibo or something and he told her!”

“That’s not good enough!” Shirogane shouts back, again leaving Kaede blinking in her wake. “Because Kiibo-kun might have known about the lock, but how would he have known the key was in Ouma-kun’s room?”

“Then she asked Kokichi!”

“And he just told her?” Shirogane fires back. “You knew Ouma-kun—was he really the kind of person who would just give up information like that, even if his life was in danger?”

“Then she…” Momota squeezes his eyes shut. “She tortured the information out of him—that’s what she used the knife for.”

Shirogane shakes her head. “No, that doesn’t make sense—why would she torture him for information she wouldn’t have even known she needed to know?”

To the side of their back and forth, Kaede hears Tenko mumble to herself, “What is happening… Shirogane-san…”

Kaede then begins to feel her heart start to hammer louder in her chest. With all of her pride at her earlier deductions, all of it fades as her mind loops that something is deeply, deeply wrong.

Maki’s voice rings out bright and clear over the escalating voices filling the room. “I used logic,” she replies. “Ouma showed up to the dining hall with electrohammers and explained he got them from Iruma’s lab. Clearly he knew how to get in.”

“That still doesn’t refute my point,” Shirogane says. “And also, if you’ll remember, Ouma-kun can pick locks, so even if you did know about Iruma-san’s lab, why would you assume he had the key to it?”

“So everyone will stop shouting,” Hoshi says, voice gruff. “I’ll say it. Only possibility is Ouma just told her for no reason, right? There,” he tugs at his hat. “Don’t know what that accomplishes, but just… quit tearing each other apart.”

Momota gapes at his words. “Wait… what?”

“Momota-kun,” Kaede says, softer this time. “Just think—even if Harukawa-san had known about the lock, wouldn’t she have asked you to try and go to Iruma-san’s room? And also… why did she need you to do it?”

His only response is to stare at her, wide eyed. Kaede glances up to Maki, but the Exisal makes no sign to indicate it’s going to interrupt her. “I don’t know why none of us thought to question this, but why did Harukawa-san stay in the hanger? She had the Exisal, and even if she did need to clean up the body, doing that and killing Ouma-kun couldn’t have taken all night.”

“She…” Momota responds, voice broken. “She kept Kokichi alive for awhile… at least she told me…”

“Harukawa-san lied to Momota-san about sparing Ouma-san,” Tenko says quietly. “And Momota-san changed his story a lot earlier, but did he even see Ouma-san that night after he left with Kaede-san?”

Momota just hangs his head without a word. Maki chooses this moment to speak up. “So, the new story is that once we were alone in the hanger, I had a chat with Ouma, killed him immediately after, and then made my requests to Momota when he came to the hanger later.” 

“Yes,” Shirogane says. “And since it plainly doesn’t make any sense, it means there has to be more to what happened. And I don’t think we should rest until we find out the real secret behind Ouma-kun’s death. Everyone else thinks so too, righ—”

“You’re not… Harukawa-san,” Kaede says. “Are you actually not the culprit?” 

Shirogane spins towards her. “Akamatsu-san?”

“What makes you say that?” Maki says, seemingly undisturbed. 

“Because,” Kaede furrows her brow, trying to connect the loose collection of pieces before her into something other than the impossible truth she knows she’s about to say. “I don’t think you can be you.”

“I see,” Maki says. “You’ve lost your mind. I suppose that’s interesting, but, anyway, if it’s not me, then who have you decided in your sudden insanity is the culprit?”

Kaede adjusts the brim of her hat to set it forward. There are so few possibilities, though all of them seem wrong to her. But if she wants the truth—and she has to want the truth—then there’s only one way forward.

_(Select So—_

“Or,” Maki says. “I can just tell you now.”

“Wait,” Kaede stares dumbfounded. “What?”

“I was hoping to see this through to end, but I see now that I have done everything I logically could with this path of action,” she says.

“Maki?” Momota says. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Momota-kun,” Kiibo says from the Exisal. “Please do not be too alarmed.”

And Kaede feels every single one of her theories shatter as Kiibo proceeds to apologize for tricking them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would first like to thank everyone for their tremendous patience with this update and also provide the happy news that I should hopefully be back to a more regular schedule! It was a bit of a challenge getting back into writing this after pausing for so long, so I hope nothing seems off or too clunky. And also, as an aside, I don't usually think too much about game mechanics when writing trials, but, well, I had some fun with the ideas in this chapter as I'm sure you can tell, haha.


	35. Trial XII

Kaede just stares forward at the Exisal, wide eyed, openmouthed, and comprehending very, very little.

Kiibo’s voice rings out. “Everyone, please do not panic. I know this may be difficult to comprehend, so I ask for your patience and understand—”

“What the fuck are you talking about!?” Momota shouts, something fierce and desperate surging in his eyes. “Why the fuck are you here—where’s—where the hell is Maki!?”

“Ah, Harukawa-san’s situation is a bit difficult to—”

“And what about Kokichi!?” Momota continues. “You—you killed him? You’re dead!”

“I am not… dead,” Kiibo replies. “I was simply transferred from Iruma-san’s monopad to the Exisal in order to speak with you all.”

Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko is happy to see you alive, but she doesn’t know what that means. Where is Harukawa-san?”

“Dead!” Shirogane gasps. “Sh-She has to be dead!”

“Shut up!” Momota snaps at her. “She’s not—we’re just confused. Kiibo’s confusing us for some fucking reason, but they’re not,” he clenches his jaw, wincing slightly. “There’s no way she’s dead. There’s no way Maki and Kokichi would both just die like that.”

“No,” Hoshi says. “Shirogane has a point. Missing a class trial is against the rules, isn’t it?”

“Harukawa-san,” Tenko says softly. “Did Monokuma kill her?”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Monokuma says. “Monokuma did what now?”

Hoshi turns a wary eye on him. “So you didn’t?”

“Of course not,” Monokuma says. “While in my role as headmaster, I wouldn’t hesitate for even a thousandedth—even a millioneth—of a second to punish any naughty rule breakers, but I would never keep such a thing quiet. I always have been quite the busybody bear since birth, I’ll have you know.”

“See!” Momota shouts triumphantly. “She’s alive!”

Tenko fidgets, voice hesitating as she asks, “Then why isn’t she here?”

Momota looks like he’s about to shout again, when he suddenly falters, all of his bravado fading as quickly as it came. “I…”

“Please, everyone,” Kiibo says. “If you’ll just allow me to explain, I can answer everything.”

“Really?” Shirogane asks. “So, um, how did you get into the Exisal? I didn’t think anyone besides Iruma-san would have the ability to do something like that.”

“I’m afraid that’s a bit complicated,” Kiibo says. “But I promise I will explain my situation after the trial, as unfortunately there are a few much more pressing problems I believe should logically be attended to first.”

“You,” Momota says, voice haggard. “You know what happened to Maki? And Kokichi, too—” he cuts himself off, suddenly clasping a hand to his mouth.

“Momota-san!” Tenko shrieks in alarm.

Kaede jerks her attention from Kiibo to the sound of Momota struggling to catch his breath through his coughs. In spite of his efforts, blood trickles through his fingers, beginning to coat his hand and drip onto his T-shirt. “Momota-kun,” Kiibo says, voice laced with concern. “Please, try to calm down. Stress likely only makes your condition worse.”

“I’m—” Momota manages between gasps. “I-I’m fine—just need… a minute.”

Kaede becomes as paralyzed as the others, completely unsure what to say as the sound of Momota’s slowly subsiding coughs fill the room. Kiibo’s the only one to speak, saying again, “I apologize, Momota-kun, for any ill effect this may have had on you. Hurting you was not my intention, but still… I apologize if that has been the result.”

“I told you,” Momota says as he finally recollects himself, smearing the blood lingering around his mouth onto the back of his sleeve. “I’m fine. Just—just shut up with your stupid apologies.”

“Momota-san, don’t be rude,” Tenko chastises, though her voice remains soft.

“No,” Kiibo says. “His response is understandable. I would actually like to apologize to everyone else as well for anything rude or hurtful I might have said. Please understand it was necessary to maintain my disguise.”

“But,” Shirogane says, brow creased. “Why were you disguised at all?”

Kiibo lets out what sounds like a sigh. “I deduced that the best route to end this trial as soon as possible was to remain inflammatory so as to quickly provoke a vote without raising suspicion. However, as that has now failed, being straightforward is now my best option.”

“Why did you want an early vote?” Hoshi asks. “You’re… it’s impossible for you to be the culprit.” He glances to Monokuma. “Isn’t it?”

“Hmm,” Monokuma says. “Well, in the event of the revival of a dead student as I so generously offered and you so woefully rejected, the revived would be reinstated as a participant soooo,” he shrugs. “Yeah, sure, why not. Zombie-mecha-robots are people, too, you know!”

“Either way,” Kiibo says. “I can assure you I am not the culprit.”

“Then do you know who is?” Shirogane asks. “You said you wanted this trial over fast, so if you just tell us, we can vote right now.”

“No!” Momota shouts. “We can’t just—we can’t just vote ‘cause if we do…”

He trails off, and Kaede takes the moment to speak up for the first time since Kiibo’s appearance. “Kiibo-kun, I’m not sure what you want to tell us, but the culprit is still Harukawa-san, isn’t it? Unless you can tell us something that proves otherwise, there is no other possibility, is there?”

Kiibo pauses. “While that may be the case, I am afraid there is a bit more to it than that.”

“Like what?” Shirogane asks.

“Kiibo-san,” Tenko says. “You… do you know the secret behind Ouma-san’s death?”

He doesn’t answer immediately, and Momota prompts, “Well?”

“Excuse me, but I need to be careful about the information I share,” Kiibo says. “We are currently in the midst of one of our best possible opportunities to end the killing game, and I cannot afford to reveal something that might damage that.”

“‘End the killing game?’” Shirogane repeats.

“You mentioned that earlier,” Kaede says. “When you were pretending to be Harukawa-san. Something about proving the game is a sham and Monokuma is a failure.”

Hoshi sighs. “This might be a stupid question, but who exactly are you trying to prove that to, by the way? All of us know this game is nothing but mindless suffering, and seriously doubt the mastermind cares.”

“That is a good point,” Shirogane says, hugging herself. “And we’re… the last people alive, right? Maybe the last Flashback Light tried to trick us about some things, but the secret of the outside world…”

Hoshi pulls at his hat. “That… did seem awfully real to me.”

“I know,” Kiibo says. “And it’s hard to explain, but believe me. I have strong reason to believe that this killing game is larger than us and something like this is the proper way to truly end it.”

Kaede frowns as she thinks over his words. “What do you mean ‘something like this?’”

“And also what do you mean ‘proper?’” Shirogane asks. “Not to be morbid, but, um, don’t we end the killing game by killing the mastermind? Assuming something horrible doesn’t happen and we end up having to wait until there’re only two of us left, that is.”

“No,” he says. “Killing the mastermind is… too sensationalized. Exposing them would be useful but killing—while morally wrong, as well—is inappropriate for our situation.”

“So,” Tenko says, nervously fidgeting with her hands. “What is appropriate?”

“A mistrial,” Kiibo says. “A trial where for whatever reason, Monokuma cannot judge it fairly.”

Shirogane’s brow creases in concern. “A mistrial? And you’re saying—are we plainly in a situation like that now?”

“If my suspicions are correct, then we have the opportunity,” Kiibo says.

“And that… ends the killing game?” Hoshi asks. “We prove the mastermind isn’t doing their job and they just give up?”

“Less that they give up and more that they have lost faith and cannot continue,” Kiibo says. “I am sorry—this is all rather difficult to explain, I know. However, if achieved, I believe it has a non-negligible chance for success.”

“Fine,” Momota says, eyes narrowed. “But for all this vague crap to work, you wanted us to vote for Maki? If we vote for someone, they die. Either they get executed or we’re wrong and they get killed along with the rest of us. How in the hell is sacrificing Maki supposed to stop the killing game?”

Kiibo pauses. “It’s not about sacrificing anyone. In fact, if all goes well, this trial should have the very last deaths of the killing game.”

“‘Very last deaths…’” Tenko says. “Someone still has to die…”

“Ideally not,” Kiibo says. “But I cannot ignore that as a possible outcome. One route to avoid such a happening would be to have everyone agree to unanimously abstain from voting, which I believe Akamatsu-san proposed many trials ago, however… that is dangerous.”

“N-Not just dangerous—that’s suicide!” Shirogane says. “Not voting is against the rules.”

“Which is why it’s risky,” Kiibo says. “One or two not voting would likely only result in their deaths. It requires the cooperation of the entire group, and at this point, such a thing is likely impossible.”

Momota shakes his head. “Don’t say it’s impossible. All we gotta do is just have everyone commit to it, right? So it’s decided—I’m not gonna vote.”

“Momota-san,” Tenko says. “What do you—”

“Maki’ll live, right? If we don’t vote, she can’t get executed,” he says. “And that’s good enough for me.”

“Momota-kun!” Shirogane says. “How can you just say that!? I know you want to help her, but all of this is just too risky! I-I don’t know what Kiibo wants, but is it really worth potentially throwing our lives away?”

“I know it is a lot to ask,” Kiibo says. “Which is why I did not propose it in the first place. Instead, I do need to insist that the vote continues the way I originally suggested. If everyone is satisfied, our best course of action is to vote for Harukawa-san.”

“And I already told you,” Momota says. “There’s no way in hell I’m doing that.”

Kiibo sighs. “Momota-kun, I understand how you feel, but please try to be rational. Harukawa-san is the undisputed culprit behind this case, and voting for her is the most logical way to see you all through this.”

Momota grips the edges of his podium, clenching his jaw. But before he can snap at Kiibo again, Kaede says, “Is that true? That Harukawa-san… is the only potential culprit?”

“Yes,” Kiibo says. “I just said that.”

“I know,” Kaede says. “But… I’m having trouble believing it without evidence.”

“Akamatsu-san,” Kiibo says. “I was an eye-witness to the events that took place in the hanger that night. I believe I know what happened.”

“Then can you tell us?” Shirogane asks. “Just so there’s no room for doubt?”

Kiibo hesitates for a moment. Then, “I was hoping to avoid going into details regarding Ouma-kun’s death in order to keep emotional stress to a minimum, but if it is necessary for further progress, I suppose I have no choice.”

Kaede nods at his word even as she feels her earlier doubts slowly begin to surge anew.

_(Present your Argument)_

“That night,” Kiibo says. “I was still located within Iruma-san’s monopad, which was on the floor in the hanger.”

“And you turned yourself on?” Tenko asks.

“Yes,” he says. “I had remained off for a good portion of the night in order to investigate certain aspects of my programming, but I finished and decided to share my findings with Ouma-kun and Akamatsu-san.”

“But by the time you turned back on,” Shirogane says. “Akamatsu-san had already left the hanger with Momota-kun, right?”

“Correct,” Kiibo says. “At this point, I believe Harukawa-san was engaged with Momota-kun in conversation as I heard their voices in the background. Ouma-kun seemed hurt but was available, so I attempted to address him.”

“What did he say?” Momota asks.

“He… had difficulty speaking,” Kiibo says. “The poison was beginning to affect him greatly at that point.”

Momota squeezes his eyes closed. “He didn’t say anything?”

“Nothing that stood out,” Kiibo says. “And when he saw Harukawa-san smash the antidote bottle, he stopped talking to me entirely.”

“Ouma-san,” Tenko says. “Died from the poison then…”

“There can be no doubt,” Kiibo says.

_(BREAK)_

“Kiibo-kun, wait,” Kaede says. “I want to ask you a few questions about what you just said.”

“Akamatsu-san?” he says. “Was there a problem with my account?”

She nods. “Yes. First—you voluntarily talked to Ouma-kun last night in the hanger?”

“Yes…” Kiibo says slowly.

“Is there something wrong with that?” Shirogane asks.

“Kiibo-kun talked to Ouma-kun and me a few times that day,” Kaede says. “But he was still angry with Ouma-kun and told me pointblank that he would prefer not to talk to him.”

“Akamatsu-san,” Kiibo says. “Please, give me a little credit. I may have been upset with Ouma-kun at the time, but I would not let my personal feelings conflict with my mission in assisting all of you escape.”

“Is…” Tenko says. “Is that true? Kiibo-san, you refused to speak with Tenko or anyone else for days after Iruma-san’s death.”

Momota clenches his jaw. “Kiibo, are you lying to us?”

“A-Absolutely not!” Kiibo stammers, appalled at the accusation. “Yes, I would have preferred to speak to Akamatsu-san at the time, but when I turned on, I noticed the state Ouma-kun was in and decided that communicating with him was more important than holding out for someone more… favorable to talk to.”

“You were able to tell how Ouma was doing from just when you turned on?” Hoshi asks. “And you didn’t think it was a trick or a lie or anything?”

“No,” Kiibo says. “Please understand at the time I felt I had very important information to deliver.”

Shirogane blinks up at him. “Really? What kind of information?”

Kiibo pauses. “I’m afraid… I believe it would be unwise to reveal that right now.”

“Because one of us is the mastermind, right?” Hoshi asks.

“Correct,” Kiibo says. “I am sorry to admit that I doubt my friends, but—”

“Kiibo-san,” Tenko says. “Did—did you believe that Kaede-san and Ouma-san both couldn’t be the mastermind? Tenko knows she, um,” her eyes dart nervously around the room, “asked you to tell them about the Flashback Light, but… you never told her what you thought about it.”

“Ouma-kun shared rather compelling proof regarding his and Akamatsu-san’s innocence,” Kiibo says. “After that, even with his rather… dubious track record, I felt inclined to believe him.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “When did he tell you that?”

“When Chabashira-san first brought me to the hanger,” he replies. “Ouma-kun demanded I talk to him first while you spoke to Chabashira-san. He explained his reasons then.”

Kaede frowns. “Why did he—”

“Akamatsu-san,” Kiibo says. “If you do not mind me speaking over you, I feel the need to repeat that I dropped my disguise in order to more directly express what I was trying to say earlier. Solving the mysteries around this case is playing right into the mastermind’s hands.”

“You keep saying that,” Momota says. “But… then you say crap that sounds suspicious and you still haven’t told us where the hell Maki is.”

“I know, and I apologize again, but it cannot be helped,” Kiibo says. “Also understand that right now, your choices are either to trust me or to trust Monokuma. Even if I may seem suspicious, I would hope that choosing between the two of us would not be too difficult.”

“That’s,” Shirogane says. “Not really an answer. Actually, you kind of just admitted you were plainly acting suspicious and lying to us.”

“I know,” he says. “And I’m afraid that still can’t be helped.”

Kaede pulls at the brim of her hat, thinking over his words and all of the slight problems with them when Momota speaks up. “Kiibo, even if you’re hiding a bunch of shit from us, can I still ask you one thing? You said Kokichi… that he—you told us what happened to him. But what about Maki? Were you the one who told her about Iruma’s lab and wanted me to go get your fucking head for some reason?”

“Know he had a grudge against Ouma,” Hoshi says. “But would Kiibo really just answer Harukawa’s questions after watching her kill someone?”

“You’re right,” Shirogane says. “That’d be heartless even for someone made out of tin.”

“I can assure you I did no such thing,” Kiibo says. “And also that is robophobic… and inaccurate. My metal composition was primarily—”

“So Kokichi told her?” Momota presses. “Did she—” he cuts himself off briefly, his own words making him grimace. “Did Maki really torture him?”

Shirogane hugs herself. “I found an arrow covered with blood while I was investigating the hanger. From what Akamatsu-san told me, I assumed it was the one Ouma-kun was shot with. And… I was wondering why Harukawa-san would have gone to the trouble to remove it.”

“That must have been…” Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko can’t even imagine how painful that must have been. Poor Ouma-san, no one deserves something like that.”

“I,” Kiibo sighs. “I was hoping not to have to go into details, but… that is all correct.”

“Our theory was right?” Kaede says. “Ouma-kun was dying of the poison and Harukawa-san tortured him for information before letting him die—that’s what happened.”

“Yes,” Kiibo says. “Due to my position, I was only able to see parts of what took place, but from my understanding… yes.”

Kaede takes a deep breath. “I see. Then, Kiibo-kun, can you answer one more question for me?”

“Of course, Akamatsu-san,” he replies solemnly.

“Will you stop lying to us?” she says.

“I—what?”

“Akamatsu,” Momota says. “You—it’s a lie? That’s not what…” he jerks to look at the Exisal. “Why the hell would you lie about something like that!?”

“I-I am telling the truth!” Kiibo protests. “I promise I would not try to deceive you about something so serious.”

“I,” Shirogane says. “I believe in Akamatsu-san. If she says Kiibo-kun is lying to us, then I believe her.”

“That’s a nice sentiment… I think,” Hoshi says. “But I’m not even sure what Akamatsu thinks is a lie.”

Kaede nods. “Don’t worry. I plan to make the contradiction in Kiibo-kun’s testimony clear. Then maybe we can get some actual answers.”

“Akamatsu-san, everyone,” Kiibo pleads in vain. “Please, trust me. I promise I’m on your side.”

“Kiibo-kun,” Shirogane says, voice stern. “To speak plainly: that remains to be seen.”

“I do not understand this hostility…” Kiibo mutters softly as Kaede prepares herself to interrogate him again.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Kaede-san said Kiibo-san lied to us,” Tenko says. “Tenko thinks it had to be something he just said… right?”

“I did not tell any lies!” Kiibo says. “I only gave my account of what happened to Ouma-kun.”

“He said he died from the poison,” Hoshi says. “Or that Harukawa tortured him to death for information.”

“Tenko isn’t sure,” she says. “But Tenko thinks we already talked about that. That Harukawa-san shouldn’t have even known Ouma-san knew…”

Momota clenches his jaw. “You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve trying to lie to us about Kokichi. You said he was in so much pain, he couldn’t even talk. Why the hell would you make something like that up?”

“I would never do such a thing!” Kiibo protests. “Why won’t you believe me?”

“Do you have any evidence?” Shirogane asks. “If you could prove it, then we’d believe you but since you’ve already lied to us once…”

“We can’t trust him, can we?” Hoshi says.

“Everyone,” Kiibo says near hopeless. “Please…”

_(BREAK)_

“That’s it,” Kaede says. “Kiibo-kun, you said the poison was affecting Ouma-kun badly enough that he couldn’t speak. If that’s true, then Harukawa-san couldn’t get information out of him no matter what she did.”

“Wait!” Kiibo shouts. “Please listen—”

“So you were fucking lying about that!” Momota shouts.

Shirogane gasps. “If Kiibo-kun is lying does that mean he really is the killer somehow?”

“At the very least,” Hoshi says. “He’s hiding something.”

“It’s the way that Ouma-san died, right?” Tenko asks. “When he was pretending to be Harukawa-san, Kiibo-san kept trying to hide that fact, too, so… what did happen to Ouma-san?”

“Well,” Shirogane says. “What can we deduce from Kiibo-kun’s lie? Does this mean he told Harukawa-san everything?”

Kiibo’s voice barely rises above the chatter in his defense of himself. “I can explain! Everything is not what you think it is! I promise I am on your side!”

“I don’t care what shitty excuse you have,” Momota says. “Pretending to be Maki and then making up all this crap about how she hurt Kokichi—you really expect us to believe that this is all for our own good?”

“I… it’s…” Kiibo falters. “Everything I’ve done since this all began was for you. I know it might be painful, but please believe that I mean it when I say my number one priority is to keep you safe.”

“But,” Shirogane says. “Didn’t you propose earlier that we not vote? How is that keeping us safe?”

Kiibo doesn’t answer, and Kaede takes the opportunity to regain control of the conversation. “I think our best choice is to just ignore him for now and try to solve the mystery in front of us. If we can do that, then maybe we can figure out exactly why Kiibo-kun would lie in the first place.”

“That… sounds reasonable,” Tenko says. “Okay, Kaede-san, where do you think we should begin?”

“Our new information seems like the best place,” she replies. “According to Kiibo-kun, both he and Ouma-kun didn’t tell Harukawa-san the information she needed in order to get Momota-kun to search for the key to Iruma-san’s lab. Right now, there’s no reason why she should have suspected that Ouma-kun had it in his room.”

“Would Kiibo have even known that?” Hoshi asks. “That Ouma stole the key?”

Kaede mulls over his words for a moment, answering slowly as she thinks. “No… Kiibo-kun was mostly just with Tenko-san after Iruma-san’s execution, and I don’t think there’s any reason why Ouma-kun would have mentioned it to him.”

“So the only person who knew,” Shirogane says. “Was Ouma-kun?”

“Momota,” Hoshi says. “Did Harukawa say anything suspicious when she was asking you to get her stuff?”

Momota frowns. “No, I don’t think so. She kept,” he lets out a shuddering sigh. “She kept apologizing to me and telling me to trust her and shit, but I thought that was just due to… her killing Kokichi.”

“If it matters,” Kiibo says. “I do believe Harukawa-san felt genuinely sorry for hurting you.”

Momota scowls. “Go to hell.”

“Um, a-anyway,” Shirogane says. “Akamatsu-san, did you say you had an idea?”

Kaede pulls at the brim of her hat. “I’m not quite sure yet,” she says. “But from everything we know, I think the only possible solution is… I think Ouma-kun just told Harukawa-san voluntarily.”

“Why would he do something like that?” Hoshi says. “You know that implies she just told him what she wanted and he helped her out, right?”

“I know,” Kaede says. “But what other possibility is there?”

“If it is the only possibility,” Tenko says. “Then Tenko thinks it has to be true, but… Tenko saw the scene of the murder. Tenko,” she cradles her head in her hands, “Tenko saw how everything was destroyed. She saw all the blood…”

Shirogane nods solemnly. “I saw it, too. But from what we talked about earlier, maybe some of the blood was Harukawa-san’s, too. I mean, assassins like her could probably just shrug off injuries for a while, so maybe it wasn’t all Ouma-kun’s. At least,” she hugs herself, “I hope it wasn’t.”

“No,” Momota sighs. “It was.”

“How do you—” Kaede starts to ask.

“Because I lied earlier when I thought it was Maki,” he says. “Kiibo made up something about me hurting her, and I just went along with it because… fuck.”

“Momota-san…” Tenko says sympathetically.

Shirogane, however, presses ahead. “Then wait—if Harukawa-san didn’t get injured, why did I find a used bandage in the bathroom?”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “That’s… that’s right. And that means…”

_(Present your Argument)_

“Momota-san said Harukawa-san was not hurt,” Tenko says. “But there was a used bandage at the scene of the murder…”

“Harukawa didn’t happen to patch you up, Momota?” Hoshi asks.

“No,” Momota says. “Nothing like that happened.”

“Akamatsu-san already said it wasn’t hers from earlier,” Shirogane says. “But the only other person who was in the hanger was Ouma-kun, right?”

“But—Tenko’s confused,” Tenko says. “Wasn’t Harukawa-san the one who brought the gauze?”

“She was…” Momota says. “But Kokichi was the only other person there after I left with Akamatsu. And I doubt… he wouldn’t do anything like that.”

“Harukawa was an assassin and Ouma was shot with a poisoned arrow,” Hoshi says. “Whether or not he ‘would’ doesn’t matter. At that point it’s just impossible.”

Shirogane frowns. “Are we just plainly missing something?”

“I suppose I am not allowed to answer that question,” Kiibo says.

_(BREAK)_

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “That’s the only possibility.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Momota says.

Kaede straightens her shoulders. “From what we know, the only person who would have needed something like a bandage is Ouma-kun. And since Shirogane-san found only a scrap left, then we can only assume that his injuries got taken care of somehow.”

“Shirogane-san mentioned she found the arrow Ouma-san was shot with, too,” Tenko says. “Would that mean that the arrow was removed not to hurt Ouma-san but… to help him?”

“But Harukawa was still the one who brought the supplies to do that,” Hoshi says. “And it seems unlikely that Ouma would have managed to steal them, remove the arrow and treat his wounds without her noticing.”

“But wait,” Shirogane says. “That means Harukawa-san had to know, and,” she frowns. “Didn’t Kiibo-kun tell us earlier that she brought the gauze as a ‘just in case’ sort of thing. Was that a lie, too?”

Kaede furrows her brow. “I—I’m not sure.”

“At the very least,” Hoshi says. “Doesn’t this all mean that Harukawa was fine with Ouma taking care of a wound she inflicted, and she was still planning to kill him later?”

“That… doesn’t sound right,” Tenko says. “But why would Harukawa-san help Ouma-san? She shot him and poisoned him a-and brought a knife to torture him and even crushed his dead body under the hydraulic press.”

“Maybe,” Shirogane says. “Maybe this is too plain an answer, but from what we know… maybe all of that stuff somehow… isn’t true?”

“You mean,” Momota says. “Maki—she didn’t kill Kokichi?”

“No,” Kiibo says. “She did. However, you are right. The situation is… more complicated than I made it out to be.”

Kaede frowns, unsure how to address him. “I’m starting to realize that, but I don’t understand. I don’t think any of us do.”

That seems to take Kiibo off guard, and he asks, “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she says. “We know why Harukawa-san went to the hanger, and, well, we know Harukawa-san. She was trying to kill me—the fact that there’s anything more to this case than a murder weapon and a corpse is just weird.”

“Harukawa-san said she wanted to prevent a trial,” Tenko says quietly. “That’s why she… cleaned up Ouma-san’s body.”

“But even that doesn’t really make sense anymore,” Kaede says. “Because Harukawa-san only ever had two goals, didn’t she? Kill the mastermind and protect Momota-kun. Why would she even go to all this trouble?”

Momota glares at her. “You know she was more complicated than that—killing people and shit wasn’t that simple to her. If you knew about her past—”

“Then maybe I’d cry for her and not the person she murdered?” Kaede snaps. “When you kill someone here that means you’re ready to put everyone else in danger, and you want to just give her a free pass because her orphanage or whatever was mean to her?”

“You are such a fucking hypocrite,” Momota snarls. “Maki’s the only person you’ve ever treated this way. You only ever saw her as this mindless killer, and that’s exactly why she hid her talent. Yeah, she fucked up a lot, but you refused to even give her a chance.”

Kaede scoffs. “So it’s suddenly my fault that she literally killed someone because I didn’t play nice with her?”

“How many goddamn times do we have to have this fight?” Momota runs a hand through his hair. “And you know what, Akamatsu, you killed someone, too, and you forced us all to have a trial, so what does that—”

“I was ready to die during that trial!” Kaede yells. “I never ran away from what I did to Amami-kun. I never hid behind robots or mechas or whatever other stupid traps Harukawa-san used to try and distract us.”

“Akamatsu-san—” Kiibo begins to say.

Hoshi cuts in, quietly advising, “if you’re gonna say something about robophobia, I’d save it for later.”

Kaede doesn’t notice the exchange as all her focus remains locked on Momota staring her down. “Maybe back then I intended to kill someone, but that does not make me the same as Harukawa-san.”

“‘Intended to kill…’” Tenko mumbles to herself.

“Why are you so obsessed with being better than her!?” Momota shouts. “We have no fucking idea if she’s dead or alive or where the hell she even is and you’re still going on about how she’s so much worse than everyone else.”

“She’s a killer!”

“Um,” Tenko says. “Tenko thinks she thought of something.”

“We’re all killers!” Momota yells back. “Don’t you get it—we’re all capable of ‘just’ trying to save ourselves or doing ‘the right thing’ or whatever other shitty excuse we use to kill someone. And you know as well as I do that we can’t keep fucking holding that against each other.”

“No,” Kaede says. “Just because ‘everyone’s doing it’ doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be held accountable for murdering someone.”

“‘Held accountable?’” Momota says. “What the hell do you think the class trial is? But you started this trial, so of course you must just be so fucking happy that—”

“Tenko has something she wants to say!”

“Wanting justice for my friends who have literally died isn’t—”

“Knock it off with your justice bullshit! Nothing about this game is ‘just’—”

“Tenko would really like to—”

“You’re literally arguing for letting a murderer just get away with killing one of your friends!”

“Yeah, because you’re trying to fucking kill her right now!”

Kaede sees red and opens her mouth to say anything to shut Momota up when Hoshi’s voice cuts through the room. “Both of you—stop.”

Momota says, “I’ll stop if she—”

“Chabashira has something she wants to tell us about the case,” Hoshi says, eyeing both Kaede and Momota carefully. “I think we should listen to her.”

“I—” Kaede glances over to see Tenko and feels the fight suddenly drain out of her. “Yeah, we… we should.”

“I think we should, too,” Shirogane says. “What is it, Chabashira-san?”

Tenko seems uncomfortable under the sudden shift in attention, and she eyes Momota as he sighs and shakes his head before she speaks. “Tenko was just… she was thinking about what Kaede-san said earlier. And about what Harukawa-san—or, Kiibo-san—said earlier about ‘intent to kill.’”

Kaede can’t help herself from jumping in. “What about it? I thought it was pretty clear that’s what Harukawa-san’s motive was—she wanted to kill the mastermind, right?”

“But…” Tenko says. “She didn’t. And when Kiibo-san was pretending to be her, he just said Ouma-san’s death was collateral, and that she’d kill whoever was in her way, but she didn’t hurt Tenko that night.”

“There was no logical reason to kill you, Chabashira-san,” Kiibo says. “Harukawa-san wanted to prevent a trial—a death within the school of someone she did not suspect would have been counterproductive to her goal.”

Hoshi stares up at the Exisal. “But that’s true for Ouma’s death, too.”

“I… suppose it is,” Kiibo says. “However, the circumstances there were different.”

“Were they?” Shirogane says. “I mean, I know I wasn’t there, but I feel like someone like Harukawa-san wouldn’t just let her target go.”

“She gave me a choice on who to save,” Momota says, gaze trained on the ground. “She let Akamatsu leave so she could get me out of there.”

Kaede huffs but nods in agreement. “That’s why she shot me in the first place. Both arrows were poisoned and Momota-kun was forced to help one of us leave to get the antidote.”

“I see,” Shirogane says. “And I think… that plainly doesn’t make sense.”

“How so?” Kiibo says. “Akamatsu-san and Momota-kun explained the situation in full.”

“They did…” Shirogane says slowly. “But I think Momota-kun might be right. I think what we’re missing is… we really don’t understand Harukawa-san, do we?”

“What?” Kaede balks. “What are you—of course we understand her.”

Hoshi murmurs, “some of us do better than others…”

Kaede whips her head to look at his strangely accusing words when Momota speaks up. “Shirogane, what are you trying to say?”

“Well,” she says. “Chabashira-san was saying it earlier that Harukawa-san’s actions and what we know about her seem weird together. So… I think we should talk more about that.”

Kaede can’t help but defensively cross her arms as the others begin to talk, Shirogane guiding them along the way.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Harukawa-san’s motivation,” Shirogane begins. “Was it really just to kill the mastermind?”

“Is there another reason why she would have gone to the hanger?” Hoshi asks.

“There’s no chance Harukawa-san just wanted to talk is there…” Tenko says. “Kaede-san said she showed up armed with a crossbow, and Shirogane-san found a knife in her bag.”

“That doesn’t sound like someone who just wants to talk to me,” Shirogane says. “But she also brought bandages and asked Momota-kun for strange things.”

“And those things just seem weird,” Hoshi says. “Momota, do you remember her doing anything else weird?”

“I don’t think so,” Momota says.

“Well,” Shirogane prods. “Did Akamatsu-san or anyone else notice anything suspicious?”

“I did not make note of any strange behavior,” Kiibo volunteers.

“Um, well,” Shirogane says. “I wasn’t really asking you.”

_(BREAK)_

“I think,” Kaede says slowly. “That I might remember something.”

Shirogane perks up at her words. “Really? What is it?”

“I didn’t really think anything of it at the time,” Kaede says. “But when Ouma-kun and I were hiding from Harukawa-san… he kept saying how weird it was that we were both going to die or that it was ‘funny’ that she gave Momota-kun a choice in who to take with him.”

Momota scowls. “I didn’t think anything about that was funny.”

“No, it probably wasn’t,” Shirogane says. “But I think Akamatsu-san is right. If Harukawa-san wanted to kill the mastermind why would she just let you take whichever of them you wanted with you?”

“Because Harukawa-san wanted Momota-kun to leave the hanger,” Kiibo says. “I believe we went over this before.”

“We did,” Kaede says. “But now that I’m thinking about what Ouma-kun and Shirogane-san said… Harukawa-san’s motive and her actions don’t match up. And,” she furrows her brow. “I think Ouma-kun figured that out when we were still in the hanger.”

“Is that why,” Momota says suddenly, “why he volunteered to stay behind?”

Kaede bites her lip. “Maybe. And if Harukawa-san did help him with his injuries, I guess they might have talked to each other so…”

She stops, fiddling with the brim of her hat as she keeps thinking. Tenko says, “Tenko doesn’t know if she understands. Did Harukawa-san really come to the hanger to talk then? Tenko thinks—oh!”

Tenko cuts herself off as something unseen catches her attention and she begins to rifle through her pockets. As she does so, Kiibo says, “That is still highly illogical. As we know, both Ouma-kun and Akamatsu-san were attacked, so the possibility that Harukawa-san wanted to communicate with them is—”

“Chabashira-san?” Another Kiibo says, his voice coming from Tenko’s podium. “Hello! I apologize for my absence if you have been trying to contact me, but—”

“Kiibo-kun!?” Shirogane shouts in alarm.

Kaede darts to look at Tenko holding Iruma’s old monopad in her hands. The familiar sight of Kiibo’s face on it makes her jaw drop. “Tenko-san, is that…?”

Softly from the Exisal, Kaede hears Kiibo’s voice mutter, “shit.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Momota says.

“Um, T-Tenko doesn’t know,” she says. “Kiibo-san, did you just turn yourself on?”

“I did,” he says. The two words alone are enough to make everyone else quickly exchange hurried and confused glances. “For some reason I was having difficulty functioning earlier, however, whatever was disabling me seems to have passed and I can find no lasting effects.”

Tenko briefly glances up to the others for some indication of how to continue the conversation. Kiibo prompts, “Chabashira-san? Is something wrong? You appear distracted.”

“N-No, Tenko’s fine, but Kiibo-san,” she says. “You’re only here, right?”

The projection of Kiibo’s face draws its animated features into a frown. “I am unsure what you mean.”

“Iruma-san mentioned she could make copies of you,” Kaede improvises. “I know it was a long time ago, but that… hasn’t happened by any chance, right?”

“No, I do not believe it has to my knowledge,” Kiibo says. “Is that Akamatsu-san? Who else is here?”

“Everyone,” Hoshi says. “We’re in a class trial.”

There’s a pause before Kiibo says, “I see,” from the monopad.

“Okay, fuck subtlety,” Momota says turning to face the Exisal. “Who the hell are you?”

The Exisal remains silent.

“If it’s not Kiibo-kun,” Shirogane says. “Then were they just using the voice changer to try and pretend to be him?”

“Someone pretended to be me?” Kiibo asks.

“Currently is pretending,” Hoshi says. “Though I think they just gave it up.”

“Kiibo-san,” Tenko says. “You were in the hanger last night. Do you know anything about what happened to Harukawa-san and Ouma-san?”

Kaede keeps eyeing the Exisal suspiciously as Kiibo says, “I do not. I spent most of the night attempting to finish running my programming, particularly since I suffered an unexpected setback while trying to do so.”

“What kind of setback?” Kaede asks.

“A power malfunction,” he says. “It was similar to the one I just recovered from. I am beginning to worry that running additional programs is too much for Iruma-san’s monopad.”

“Okay, okay, whatever,” Momota says still staring at the Exisal. “I asked you a damn question. Who the hell—” he brings a hand to his mouth and lets out a wet cough as he finishes his question, “—a-are you?”

The Exisal stays quiet as Momota coughs.

Kaede says, “Why are you trying to hide your ident—”

“Well that was rather unfortunate timing,” the Exisal says, still using Kiibo’s voice. “This is exactly why I wanted to end the trial early.”

“You—just,” Momota snaps even as he continues to wipe the blood off of his mouth. “Just tell us the truth. Who the hell are you!?”

“Someone who hasn’t given up yet,” the Exisal says.

Shirogane points a shaky finger at it. “So you are just trying to get away with murder and beat us, aren’t you? We already know, so just admit it.”

“You misunderstand,” the Exisal says. “I’m going to lose the trial—but there’s still a chance one of you will figure it out. That’s what I haven’t given up on.”

Kaede watches it carefully as if some movement of its mechanical arms would betray its true intentions. “Figure what out?”

The Exisal doesn’t respond to her, and instead Kiibo speaks up, asking, “Excuse me, but is whoever is in the Exisal the person you mentioned who was pretending to be me?”

“That’s right,” Tenko says. “We thought they were you—well first, Tenko thought it was Harukawa-san, but now we’re just kind of confused.”

“Still has to be Harukawa,” Hoshi says. “Not sure why she’s going to all this trouble though.”

“Harukawa-san is inside the Exisal?” Kiibo asks. “Why is she—”

“She killed Kokichi,” Momota says. “And she’s hiding in there to stop Monokuma from executing her.”

“I,” Kiibo says. “Am confused. You seem unsure on whether you’re sure it’s Harukawa-san or not.”

Shirogane clears her throat. “Ah, well, it kind of has to be Harukawa-san because we’re all here, and… Ouma-kun is dead.”

“He is?” Kiibo asks. “When did this happen?”

“Last night,” Tenko says softly. “The Monokuma File said he died at some point between midnight and two in the morning.”

To Kaede’s surprise, Kiibo’s response is, “huh.”

Momota scoffs. “Kiibo, I know you didn’t like him, but come on.”

“Oh no! I did not mean it in that way!” he clarifies. “I just thought it was rather strange since that was the time period where I suffered my power malfunction last—”

“Kiibo,” the Exisal says, however strangely the words sound coming out in Kiibo’s voice. “Don’t.”

Shirogane’s the first to react to the interruption. “Why don’t you want him to say anything?” The Exisal stays quiet. Shirogane sighs. “Well, now we know we have the culprit cornered like a rat. At this point we just really need to think like them—get in their head. Think like a rat— _become_ the rat.”

“Um, Shirogane-san?” Tenko asks. “Are you okay?”

Shirogane doesn’t reply, still murmuring to herself. “Think, think. Why would the culprit not want Kiibo-kun to talk?”

“He’s a witness,” Hoshi says, though seemingly unsure of himself. “Isn’t he?”

“No,” the Exisal says. “He said earlier he had no idea a murder had even taken place.”

“I still think we need to hear what he has to say,” Shirogane says. “And then we can vanquish this culprit once and for all!”

Momota mutters darkly under his breath, “the hell are you so excited for?”

Kaede spares him a quick glance, before turning her attention to Shirogane’s conversation.

_(Present your Argument)_

“Kiibo-kun,” Shirogane says. “Please present your witness account of the night of the murder.”

“Last night…” Kiibo says. “I was not aware of what was happening for most of the night I believe, however, I encountered a power failure a bit after midnight.”

“Can you please clarify the time,” Shirogane presses.

“My internal clock states it began at twelve-forty,” Kiibo says.

“That’s the time of Ouma-san’s death,” Tenko says softly.

Momota shakes his head. “We don’t know exactly when he died. There’s a two hour window in the Monokuma File for some goddamn reason.”

“Two hours…” Kiibo repeats.

“Witness,” Shirogane says. “Does that mean anything to you?”

“No,” the Exisal says. “He just said he was dysfunctional at that time.”

“I-It’s not time for your cross-examination yet,” Shirogane protests.

_(BREAK)_

“Power failure…” Kaede says. “Hey, Kiibo-kun, you said you thought you just overloaded yourself or something, right, but… is there any chance something else forced you to turn off?”

Kiibo pauses. “I suppose that is a possibility. I admit I only assumed the cause because I could find no internal defects.”

“And you were also out of commission for this entire weird two hour window we have for Ouma-kun’s death?” Kaede asks.

“That is also true,” he concedes.

“Okay, then,” Kaede says. “Chabashira-san, Shirogane-san, when you were investigating the hanger, you saw used electrohammers, right?”

Tenko nods. “Yes. Do you think someone used one on Kiibo-san?”

“Maybe but… Kiibo-kun, you were forcibly turned off for exactly two hours last night?” Kaede asks.

“Correct.”

Kaede sends a weighing look towards the Exisal, but it remains silent. “Then I think I know what happened. Assuming… Chabashira-san, you didn’t happen to see anything that looked sort of like a bright pink grenade in the hanger this morning did you?”

“No,” she says. “Tenko didn’t. What about you, Shirogane-san?”

“I didn’t notice anything like that either,” Shirogane says. “And a pink grenade? I think that probably would have caught my attention.”

“Grenades…” Hoshi says. “Akamatsu, you mentioned something like that a while ago when we were talking about fighting Monokuma, right?”

Kaede nods. “I did. And those grenades were EMPs that last exactly two hours.”

“Two hours?” Momota asks. “Wait. Was one of those used and—”

“And it took Kiibo-kun offline!” Shirogane exclaims in her excitement. “A-And that’s also why—” then she pales, cutting herself off abruptly.

“Shirogane-san?” Tenko asks. “Are you okay?”

“I-I,” she stammers. “I’m fine. I was just… thinking about something…”

Kaede frowns. “Thinking about—”

“Hang on,” Momota says. “These grenade things or whatever that turns stuff off—Hoshi, you mentioned all the cameras and crap are little robot bugs—”

“Robot bears,” Monokuma interrupts.

“Shut up,” Momota says. “Robot bugs that are watching us all the time. Would one of those EMPs affect them?”

Hoshi pauses for a moment, thinking. “If it did…” he says slowly. “Then Monokuma couldn’t monitor what was happening in the hanger for two hours.”

“During which Ouma-kun died. Wait,” Kaede says, the sudden realization hitting her. “Does that mean we don’t have an exact time of death because—does the mastermind not know?”

“W-What?” Monokuma says, sweating profusely. “O-Of course I know when the little brat died! It’s my job as—”

“Then tell us,” the Exisal says. “Knowing the time of death is necessary for a fair trial.”

Kaede looks up at the Exisal, lost for a moment before it dawns on her. This is a challenge. She whips her head to look at Monokuma, pausing on his throne. “You know,” he says finally. “I think it’s time we move on to a different subject, kids. So how about we talk about the—”

“Hey!” Momota barks. “Tell us the truth—do you know what happened to Kokichi or not!?”

“Know? Of course I know!” Monokuma exclaims. “Last night he was smashed to bits! Dead, done, gone forever and ever and ever! What more do you need to know?”

“Um,” Tenko says. “Tenko doesn’t want to agree with him, but… does the exact time of death matter? It says Ouma-san died that night, and Tenko—she _thinks_ that means the cameras turned back on after two hours and saw him dead…”

Hoshi sighs. “And we saw Harukawa this morning. Guess we found Monokuma covering his ass, but not sure if it changes anything.”

“Ah, I guess that’s true,” Shirogane says, though still seeming unsettled.

Kaede keeps her gaze trained on the Exisal as the pieces start to come together before her again. It would be stupid to put her trust in them. She tears her eyes away. It would be stupid to trust someone like Maki. “Guys,” she says. “Think about it—wasn’t that weird?”

“What was weird?” Kiibo asks.

“Oh,” Tenko says, quickly looking down at him still in her hands. “Early this morning when we were all still in the dorms, we heard an Exisal outside and Harukawa-san was inside it. We talked to her and then she went back down to the hanger then we…” she glances up to the others for any guidance on how to continue. “We… talked for a while about what to do before following her.”

“I see,” Kiibo says. Then, “what about that is strange?”

“When we talked to Harukawa-san in the Exisal,” Kaede says. “She opened the hatch the pilot’s seat for some reason.”

“Well, yeah,” Momota says. “We had to talk to her and shit.”

“But she can talk to us through the mic,” Shirogane gasps. “So did she just open it to prove it was her or something?”

Kaede nods. “That’s what I’m beginning to suspect.”

“Why would Harukawa-san need to do something like that?” Tenko asks.

“Because of what Kiibo-kun said,” Kaede says. “He says he suffered one blackout last night and he recovered just now from another one, and since you and Shirogane-san didn’t see any of the EMPs when you were in the hanger—”

“But they also didn’t see Kiibo’s head,” the Exisal says. “Things have gone missing.”

Kiibo softly murmurs in confusion, “my head?”

Kaede frowns. “No, I know I’m right. Kiibo-kun, how long did your blackout before the trial last?”

“I believe I suffered my second malfunction approximately… a little over two hours ago,” Kiibo says. “It was,” he pauses, the same connection Kaede made coming to him. “The same as the first one.”

“How many EMPs were there?” Hoshi asks.

“Just two, right?” Shirogane says. “So does that mean one was used last night and another was used this morning to disable Kiibo-kun?”

Momota rubs the back of his head. “Okay, yeah, I guess. But what does any of that mean? Maki wanted us to know she was in the Exisal so she could shut off Kiibo?”

“No,” Kaede says. “I think Kiibo-kun being there was a complete coincidence.”

“Akamatsu-san?” Shirogane says. “Did you figure something out?”

Kaede turns to look at her hanging on to her every word. “Yeah… yeah I did.”

_(Present your Argument)_

“We’re so close to figuring out this mystery,” Shirogane says. “Akamatsu-san, you can do it!”

“Um,” Kaede says. “Thank you?”

“Can we focus?” Momota asks. “You said it was weird Maki talked to us—what do you mean by that?”

“Tenko does think it was a little strange she would stop to speak to us,” Tenko says. “And that she opened the hatch to the cockpit then but not now…”

“If she opened it in the trial, she couldn’t have pulled her Kiibo trick,” Hoshi says. “Why… did she pull her Kiibo trick anyway?”

“Is that why she disabled me this morning?” Kiibo asks. “In order to impersonate me at the trial?”

“But if that was Harukawa-san’s goal,” Tenko says. “Why did she wait to start pretending to be Kiibo-san?”

“Maybe there was another reason for using the EMP,” Hoshi says. “Maybe she wanted to trip Monokuma up on something again.”

Momota mumbles, “she wanted to hide something from Monokuma…”

“And if that’s the case,” the Exisal said. “Then maybe it should remain hidden.”

_(BREAK)_

“We never saw Harukawa-san after we went to the hanger that morning,” Kaede says. “And this entire trial whoever is inside that Exisal has been trying to hide their identity this entire time.”

“Akamatsu,” Momota says. “What are you—”

“I have a question,” the Exisal says.

“You,” Shirogane points an unsteady finger at it. “You’re just trying to stop us! Nothing good can come from answering your question!”

“Maybe,” the Exisal says. “But I think I’ll still ask it. Last night in the hanger, Ouma and Akamatsu were together and Momota and Harukawa were together. Then the alarm turned off.”

Kaede blinks. “Yes…”

Momota scowls. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Who turned off the alarm?” it asks.

The room goes quiet. Kaede finds herself at a loss. “I,” she begins. “Don’t know. I was with Ouma-kun the whole time, and I just… never thought about it.”

“Are you trying to imply there was someone else in the hanger that night?” Momota asks. “‘Cause it wasn’t me or Maki.”

“Hoshi-kun and I were together when… all of that was happening, I think,” Shirogane says. “And Chabashira-san was unconscious in the school.”

“And Kiibo’s a thumb drive,” Momota says. “That’s literally everyone so what the fuck are you talking about?”

The Exisal pauses for a moment, then, “who would have the ability to turn off the alarm?”

“Will you just tell us what the hell you mean already?” Momota snaps.

“Ouma had the remote to the hanger, but Akamatsu said he had nothing to do with it,” the Exisal continues. “So who else could have done it?”

Kaede fiddles with the brim of her hat as she thinks. “Just… Monokuma’s the only one who knows the password.”

“Exactly,” the Exisal says.

Kaede turns slightly to look at the now sweating robot bear. “Did you?”

“W-Well,” Monokuma says. “It was just sooo loud and I was just trying to get my beauty sleep, and it is my responsibility to shut off the alarm so it doesn’t blare forever. And let me tell you just what a pain my b—”

“You interfered with a murder,” the Exisal says. “And that breaks one of your rules.”

“Is that true…” Tenko murmurs softly. “What happens then?”

“Ahem, well, excuse me for wanting a little peace and quiet!” Monokuma says. “And as you know, a murder had not yet occurred at that point—just some riffraff and spats that were far too loud for my delicate ears.”

“For your ears,” the Exisal says. “Or your audiences’?”

Kaede snaps to look at the Exisal as any doubts in her mind evaporate into nothing.

“Audience?” Monokuma asks, tilting his head. “Are you by any chance referring to my tragically deceased kubs? To mock a grieving father! Oh the humanity! The bear-manity!”

“Knock it off,” Hoshi says. “Tell us what they’re talking about.”

“I would if I could, but my head is only full of fluff,” Monokuma replies. “Poor little old me, surrounded by such wild and imaginative children. Whatever is a bear to do besides kill them all?”

“Anything besides that,” the Exisal says. “You won’t end your game that way.”

Monokuma raises a paw, his red eye glowing. “Phuhuhu—feel like testing me on that?”

“No,” the Exisal says. “I’ve done what I needed to do. Akamatsu, you had something to say.”

Kaede blinks up at it, completely caught off guard. “I—you want me to keep going?”

“I want you to think.”

Kaede keeps staring at it. Distantly, Momota asks her if she knows something, the emotional strain clear in his voice. Shirogane asks if she’s figured something out and if she’ll please tell everyone else. The Exisal doesn’t say anything.

Her thoughts come racing faster. Maki wouldn’t do what Kaede knows she has to have done. She isn’t to be trusted. Neither of them are to be trusted. Kaede keeps thinking, the implications twisting themselves over and into knots.

Then Shirogane speaks. “Wait a minute—I think I get it.”

“You…” Kaede says. “You do?”

“It’s plainly just a theory, but,” she says. “Is there any chance that Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun switched places this morning?”

Kaede feels her jaw drop as Shirogane makes the decision to press onwards for her.

“But wouldn’t that mean the Monokuma File was wrong?” Tenko asks.

Shirogane sighs. “I know it’s hard to believe, especially because we’ve relied on it so much in the past. But Akamatsu-san is right. Why else would the culprit of the trial try so hard to pretend to be so many different people? Why would Harukawa-san make sure we knew it was her when we first saw her this morning? Why would she wait before killing Ouma-kun that night?” She turns to Kaede. “Akamatsu-san, you see what I’m getting at, don’t you?”

And then Kaede feels herself freeze. “I…” she stares at Shirogane looking so earnestly at her to continue. She doesn’t turn to see what the Exisal is doing, but she swears she can feel its cold stare on her, too. “I think—”

“I have something to say,” the Exisal says.

“No,” Shirogane says. “You’re just going to try to confuse us.”

“I’m not just saying it for me,” Ouma’s voice says, suddenly emanating from the Exisal. Then it switches to Amami. “If I can be dramatic for a moment, I need to say something for everyone who has died.” Then, Maki. “And I’m not going to take no for an answer.”

 

_(THEORY ARMAMENT)_

“This killing game,” Maki says. “Has always been us against the mastermind—the killings are only distractions.”

“Solving mysteries here,” Saihara says. “That’s not really finding the truth. It’s just what the mastermind wants us to do. 

“It is a show to them,” Tojo says. “They give us a puzzle and we solve it to entertain their audience.”

“And all that does,” Gonta says. “Is create more murders, and then more mysteries and more entertainment. And all of us…”

“We die for it,” Shinguji says. “The trials are not held in order for us to survive but in order to perpetuate our suffering.” 

“There is no justice, there is no ‘hope’ in doing what Monokuma asks,” Kiibo says. “There is no beating him at him own game either. The only way to truly succeed…”

“Is to not play at all!” Angie says. “But it’s too hard to just stop the murders so the only other thing to do is to stop the mysteries!”

“If that happens,” Yumeno says. “Then Monokuma’s audience won’t be happy, and if they’re not watching, why would we keep playing?” 

“And you better take this advice seriously,” Iruma says. “People have died over it, you know? Two people are dying over it right now.” 

“The only way to make sure their sacrifices aren’t in vain,” Ouma says. “Is to stop here—not every truth needs to be revealed.” 

“And the truth I’m giving you, and the one you need to believe,” Amami says. “Is that Ouma died that night and Harukawa killed him.”

“ **And there is no other possibility** ,” Maki says.

_(BREAK)_

Kaede pauses for a moment, still staring up at the Exisal, taking it all in.

Shirogane, says, “Well, is that everything? Are you done?”

No one answers her question immediately and Shirogane sighs. “I guess in that case—”

“Shirogane-san,” Kaede says. “I think I understand what you were trying to say earlier about Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun potentially switching places.”

Shirogane looks delighted, and Kaede doesn’t miss the semi-triumphant look she sends the Exisal. “Good. So I guess I wasn’t too far off, the—”

“But I think your theory isn’t right,” Kaede says.

Shirogane blinks at her. “Huh?”

“What you’re getting at is that Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun made some sort of weird plan or something and Harukawa-san just agreed to let herself be killed, right?” Kaede says.

“Maki,” Momota says. “She’s the victim!?”

“No,” Kaede shakes her head. “She can’t be. I get why Shirogane-san thinks it’s a possibility, but, well,” she shrugs, “Ouma-kun was poisoned that night and we all know the antidote ended up broken in pieces on the floor. It’s impossible that he survived.”

“I…” Shirogane looks at a complete loss. “I guess that is true…”

“There was only the one antidote that Momota-san brought,” Tenko says. “And if Ouma-san was shot with poison…”

Momota clenches his jaw. “There’s no way he would have lived.”

“Ah, but…” Shirogane starts to say. “Um…”

“Momota-kun did give me part of the antidote,” Kaede says. “So you didn’t need to drink all of it, but from what you described earlier, I doubt Ouma-kun ever got any of it.”

Shirogane hugs one of her arms to herself but doesn’t say anything further. Hoshi says, “So is that everything then?”

“Tenko thinks so,” Tenko says. “We argued for so long, but… the answer is still the same isn’t it?”

“Then did Harukawa-san impersonate me merely to throw suspicion off of herself?” Kiibo asks.

“Maybe,” Kaede says. “She could have tried to just make us have enough doubt to think up some weird theories instead of just looking at the problem in front of us.”

“I see,” Kiibo says. “So she was simply trying to get away to avoid execution.”

Momota shakes his head. “That can’t be it. Maki—she wouldn’t do that.”

“But,” Tenko says softly. “She just did.”

Momota just sighs. “I know. But it doesn’t seem right to me. Maki knew what she was doing—she wouldn’t just kill someone and let us take the fall. She wasn’t like that.”

“Momota-kun,” Kaede says sternly. “Ouma-kun is dead because Harukawa-san killed him. Even if you want to believe in her, that’s just the facts of the situation. There’s no way Ouma-kun could have survived that poison.”

“‘That poison…’” Shirogane mutters to herself, suddenly creasing her brow in thought.

Momota doesn’t meet her gaze. “I know. I found the antidote, put it in Maki’s hand and watched her break it from the bathroom window—you don’t have to keep telling me over and over again.”

“Momota-kun,” Shirogane says. “Actually, um, would you mind telling me a bit more about the antidote? I mean, I remember you reading part of the label aloud when you found it but… I-I think it could be useful to go over what it was.”

Hoshi frowns. “Does the poison used matter?”

“I’m not sure,” Shirogane says. “But I think it might.”

Kaede watches Shirogane carefully, not quite sure what she’s trying to get at. “Shirogane-san, I don’t think there were the same ingredients that were in the antidote just lying around in the hanger or anything like that. And even if there were, I doubt Momota-kun remembers exactly what they were.”

“No, no!” she says. “It’s nothing like that.”

“Then what is it?” Tenko asks politely.

“Well,” Shirogane says. “I was just thinking it might be useful to know what kind of poison it was since… there might be a second antidote that someone secured way before the murder. Actually, Akamatsu-san, I think you might know what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t think I do,” Kaede says. “How could there have been…” and she feels the words die in her throat as the memory that only she and Shirogane should know comes back to her. Kaede shakes her head, hoping she didn’t pause for long enough to alert Shirogane of her discovery. “I’m sorry, Shirogane-san, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh,” she says. “That’s too bad. Anyway, Momota-kun, what did the antidote label say?”

Kaede sends him a look she hopes conveys the complex intricacies of the situation. Momota only seems slightly off put by her pained expression but understands enough to give the vague answer, “a bunch of stuff about how to use it and how much to take mostly.”

Shirogane, for her part, doesn’t seem frustrated by his useless response. “Okay, but did the label say anything about what kind of poisons it commonly treats?”

“I’m not su—”

“Anything about poisons commonly slipped in food?”

The color drains from Momota’s face and the stutter in his answer does enough damage alone. “I—did I say something like that when I found it?”

“No,” Shirogane says. “But Harukawa-san did when she took the antidote Ouma-kun had taken from Saihara-kun’s lab at dinner a few days ago.”

Kaede can’t help but wince at the damning words. Hoshi asks, “don’t remember anything like that. When did this happen?”

“Well, a while back when Akamatsu-san and I discovered Saihara-kun’s lab for the first time, Ouma-kun showed up and took an antidote and a poison with him,” Shirogane says. “I don’t plainly have no idea what he was planning to do with it, but at dinner the night we finished exploring the new parts of the school, he started talking about it again, and Harukawa-san took the antidote from him.”

“That night,” Tenko says. “Tenko was with Hoshi-san in the dorms…”

“And Momota-kun was in his room,” Shirogane adds. “Akamatsu-san and I were the only people who saw it happen, but from Momota-kun’s reaction, I think I guessed right.”

Momota grips the front of his podium with one hand, and Kaede notices the other darts to hold his side. “Okay,” Kaede says. “But just because Harukawa-san had an antidote doesn’t mean Ouma-kun ever took it.”

“Th-That’s right,” Momota agrees, his voice breaking as he tries to hold back a cough. “Maybe that’s all true or whatever, but we don’t know if she had it with her when she went to the hanger. Besides, Maki destroyed the antidote I brought so she obviously didn’t—”

“No,” Shirogane says. “She did that because she wanted to trick you into thinking Ouma-kun died that night, and we almost fell for it. But we know that before Harukawa-san went to the hanger, she specifically picked to use a poison that she knew there were two antidotes for—one that Monokuma had restocked on the shelf in Saihara-kun’s lab and the one she had taken from Ouma-kun previously.”

Kaede’s mouth presses into a thin line as Shirogane talks. “But,” she says. “We can’t know that for sure.”

“I think we can,” Shirogane insists. “I mean, why else would Harukawa-san go out of her way to choose that poison? She must have gone to the hanger with the goal in mind to try and pull some sort of trick like this.”

“No,” Momota says. “That can’t be right. ‘Cause that would mean… would mean she was planning to let herself be killed, and,” he grimaces, “M-Maki wouldn’t do that.”

“But,” Tenko says. “Would Harukawa-san kill someone? Tenko knows that seems like a strange question, but, Momota-san kept talking about how she promised him she wouldn’t…”

Momota stares at her in horror for a brief moment before turning away to cough into his hand. “N-No,” he still manages to get out. “I-I refuse to believe that.”

“If all of this is true,” Hoshi says mostly to himself. “Then… Ouma’s alive?”

“K-Kokichi?” Momota stammers. “He—no that’s not possible. He wouldn’t hurt anyone either.”

The Exisal remains silent.

“I think maybe I should clear up everything,” Shirogane says. “Because we’ve solved this case.”

“I really don’t think that’s necessary, Shirogane-san,” Kaede says quickly.

“If it’s the only way to convince everyone,” she says. “Then it is. So first, a few days before the murder, the culprit of the case and Harukawa-san—”

“But we can’t know!” Kaede shouts. “All of this is just speculation! _Maybe_ Harukawa-san decided to just let Ouma-kun kill her for some reason, or _maybe_ it’s what we thought before and Harukawa-san still killed him with the knife or the poison or whatever else. We can’t know.”

“And,” the Exisal finally says, Ouma’s voice emanating from it this time. “Monokuma doesn’t know either.”

Shirogane’s eyes widen. “What?”

“The EMPs,” Maki says. “You were right. They disabled the mastermind’s cameras in the hanger. No one knows what happened—not even Monokuma.”

“Is… is that really true?” Momota asks.

“If it is,” Hoshi says. “Then what happens with the trial?”

Kaede turns to stare down Monokuma. “We can’t vote if you don’t know the answer.”

But strangely enough, unlike the times before, Monokuma doesn’t seem nervous. “Is that so? Because after your wonderful discussion, I think I have a pretty good idea how things went down.”

“But Kaede-san was right,” Tenko says. “We can’t know for sure, can we? So… how do we vote?”

Monokuma brings his paws to his mouth. “Like you always do. Vote for who you think is the blackened!”

“Fuck you,” Momota says. “You’re just trying to get us to sell out Maki or Kokichi.”

“Aw, that’s such a nasty way of putting it,” Monokuma says. “Especially since aren’t they the ones who betrayed you first when they set up an impossible mystery? After all, who’s going to suffer from a wrong vote? Who’s going to suffer from a resisted execution? Oh, and believe me, this trial isn’t ending without an execution.”

Kaede feels her throat tighten even as she forces herself to speak. “You’re—you’re bluffing. As long as you don’t know what happened, you can’t rule if our vote is right or wrong.”

“Maybe we could try and tie the vote?” Shirogane asks. “L-Like three of us vote for Ouma-kun and then three for Harukawa-san.”

“Not gonna happen,” Hoshi says. “Whichever of them is in the Exisal would have to leave in order to vote at all.”

“But doesn’t that mean that if we even hold a vote, they’ll be punished anyway even if we are wrong?” Tenko asks.

“Ah, a clever plan, certainly had me sweating a few times,” Monokuma says. “But all’s well that ends well, and this situation is just so utterly, deliciously hopeless once again. Because like I said—this trial only ends with an execution for somebody.”

“That,” Kiibo says suddenly. “Might be alright…”

Momota looks appalled. “Wha—What the hell are you saying!? How is that ‘alright!?”

“I, ahem,” Kiibo says. “May or may not have a potential plan in place in the event of—”

“Puhuhuhu,” Monokuma laughs. “Oh, don’t worry your pretty little decapitated head about all that. Maybe the situation isn’t quite as taken care of as it should be thanks to a few good for nothing tech monkeys not doing their jobs, but accommodations have been made far in advance!”

Kaede blinks. “What are you talking about? It sounds like you have employ—”

“Which means whoever our culprit is will receive a lovely, unhackable, low-tech execution!” Monokuma announces. “Honestly, they knew what they were doing in the old days—some times you just gotta strip off the bells and whistles to find real despair, you know?”

“What… does that mean?” Tenko asks cautiously.

Monokuma brandishes a claw. “I’m glad you asked. It means there’s no escape for our culprit who thinks they’re just so clever. Let this be a lesson for all you kids: never try to outsmart a bear.”

“But,” Kaede says, feeling the desperation involuntarily creep into her voice. “You still don’t know who the culprit is. None of us do. You can’t punish us if you don’t know, and if they stay in the Exisal, they’re safe aren’t they?”

“Aw, you kids are so cute, thinking I won’t smash one of my own Exisals to bits,” Monokuma says. “And also now might be a wonderful time to introduce the Monokuma tank! Or the Monokuma clone army! Or maybe the Monokuma fighter jet! Go online for more details about how you, too, can purchase one of these limited offer—”

“You’re just going to kill us then?” Shirogane gasps. “O-Or destroy the trial room until the culprit comes out?”

“Welp, it’s not the nicest solution, but a bear has to do what a bear needs to do!” Monokuma says. “And I’m not giving up until someone here gets executed. Because after all, maybe the vote will be wrong or right, but our mysterious culprit will have to make an appearance either way if they want to prove, oh, what was it? My game is a sham and I’m a failure or something?”

Kaede feels herself start to sweat. She looks to the Exisal, hoping it will have some possible solution. But it remains as silent as the others, all starting to look panicked as the reality of their situation sets in.

Then, “hey,” Momota says. “Monokuma, I have a question for you. At Saihara’s trial… Akamatsu was the culprit, but he took the execution for her. Can that happen again?”

The Exisal speaks then, hissing in Ouma’s voice, “Momota-chan, quit it.”

“Hmm?” Monokuma says. “Are you trying to make a deal with little old me?”

“No,” it says again, this time as Maki. “He’s not.”

Momota turns to the Exisal. “Hey, I—I honestly have no idea who you are, but just let me protect you, okay? I don’t have a lot of time left, and if I have to die, doing it this way, well,” even with the blood on his face, he does his best to give the Exisal his most confident smile. “I think I’d be okay with that.”

“Momota-san,” Tenko gasps. “You can’t—you can’t just do something like that!”

“I will if Monokuma lets me,” he says. “Besides, like I said… I don’t know who the hell died, but either answer…” he shakes his head. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t know and I don’t want to know. I know Maki or Kokichi… one of them is already dead, but if I can save the other,” he presses his fists together. “Then I’m going to. And dying not knowing who I failed—I think I’d prefer that.”

Kaede finds herself at a loss to do anything that repeat his name. “Kaito…”

“Hmm, hmm,” Monokuma hums. “Interesting, very interesting…”

“So,” Momota says. “What do you think Monokuma? Everyone votes for me, I get executed, and you let the others go. You get your execution and the trial ends.”

“Momota,” Maki says. “I can’t let you do that.”

He shakes his head. “It’s too late. I’ve already made up my mind.”

“You don’t understand,” she says. Then she pauses for just a moment before saying, “if I let you die, Harumaki-chan will kill me.”

Momota’s previously calm demeanor vanishes. “Ko—”

Then the Exisal starts to lower itself to the ground, Maki’s voice still coming out of it all the way. “I had a feeling things would end like this. And I didn’t have too much of a choice anyway once you guys started piecing everything together even after my super dramatic speech and all.” The hatch rises, and Kaede can’t find it in herself to feel anything but defeat when she sees Ouma inside. “Honestly, that should have given away that it was me. You think Harumaki-chan could pull something like that off?”

“So,” Shirogane says. “The culprit was Ouma-kun after all.”

“You got it,” Ouma grins, folding his hands behind his head. “I underestimated you guys. I thought you’d all be doomed for sure without me giving you hints. But looks like—”

“What the fuck are you doing!?” Momota shouts in him. “Get the hell back in there right now! Monokuma’s gonna kill you!” Ouma doesn’t move and Momota shouts again. “What the hell are you waiting for!? Hurry up!”

Ouma looks at him, and while his expression remains upbeat, Kaede can’t help but think she sees something slightly sad in his smile, or at least, she’d like to think she does. “Momota-chan,” he says. “You’re very dumb and very sweet, and you know it’s too late for that to work.”

“No!” he yells back. “No, it’s fucking not! There’s still time to—”

“Did someone say out of time?” Monokuma asks. “Because whoever did is right on the money! It’s now the wonderful and despair inducing voting time! Will you choose the right choice or the dreadfully—”

“Fuck you!” Momota shouts. “I’m not voting for shit!”

“Nope,” Ouma says. “I appreciate the sentiment, but no can do, Momota-chan. Like I said, Harumaki-chan would not be happy if anything happens to you. That was part of our deal, you know.”

Shirogane says softly, “so you two were working together, after all. Did Harukawa-san force you to do the plan or she wouldn’t give you the antidote?”

“That’s… a possibility,” Hoshi says, though seemingly more stunned than anything.

Ouma hums. “Could be. But anyway, your options are everyone votes for me or everyone decides not to vote, and, well,” he smiles wryly. “Option two isn’t going to happen. Not for me.”

Kaede feels her stomach twist. “Ouma-kun…”

“I don’t care,” Momota says. “I’m not—I’m not sending you to your death. I don’t care if I’m the only one. I’m not voting for anyone.”

Ouma sighs and finally jumps out of the Exisal’s cockpit to walk over to him. He places a comforting hand on Momota’s arm and says, “Hey, Chabashira-chan,” he says. “Can you do me another favor?”

Tenko jolts slightly at the address but still answers, “Y-Yes?”

“My podium’s next to yours so can you go ahead and vote for me?” he says.

“Kokichi,” Momota says. “You can’t be serious.”

“What? Why not? I’m always serious,” Ouma says. “And I’m especially serious about Chabashira-chan voting for me since I need to vote for you.”

Momota manages to gasp, “Wha—” before Ouma bodily shoves the bulk of meager weight into Momota’s chest.

He gasps again, staggering back with a choked cough, while Ouma easily presses at the voting screen on his podium. “And there,” he says before looking up. Behind him, Momota’s on his knees, trying to catch his breath as more coughs rack his body. “Anyone else still need to vote?”

Kaede forces herself to tear her eyes away just long enough to press his name on her own panel. Tenko seems to do the same and immediately takes off to hurry to Momota’s side. “Momota-san,” she says. “Try to calm down. Just focus on breathing, and—”

He looks up, blood still streaking down his chin, to glare at Ouma. “F-Fuck you.”

Ouma nonchalantly turns to face him as Monokuma announces all the votes are in. “It sounds like you're angry with me, Momota-chan. That's good,” he says. “And holding on to all that anger will make pressing the reset buttons on your feelings just a bit easier.”

Behind him, the tallies come in to show a unanimous vote. Despite Tenko’s protest, Momota staggers to his feet, taking a shaky step towards Ouma. “You—you killed Maki, and you faked your own death just so you could lie and manipulate us, and-and put me through hell,” he snarls. “And I’m never going to forgive you for any of this.”

“You shouldn’t,” Ouma says. “In fact—”

He stops abruptly when Momota surges forward to wrap his arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug. “And I’m so fucking happy you’re alive.”

Ouma seems to recover from his initial surprise, though he doesn’t return the hug, his arms staying limply at his sides. But he doesn’t push Momota away, either, and remains oddly quiet as the other slowly gather around. “Hey, Momota-chan,” he says finally. “I know you love me and all, but everyone’s kinda starting to stare.”

“Shut up,” Momota mumbles half heartedly.

“But you know how hard that is for me,” Ouma teases back.

“Um,” Shirogane says. “Not to interrupt, but… Ouma-kun, can we ask you some questions?”

Without moving an inch, Ouma replies casually, “well, you know how much I love talking about myself, but I’m afraid that’s kind of up to Momota-chan right now.”

Momota pauses for a moment, letting a breath out through his nose before slowly backing off. “Ew,” Ouma says, brushing at the top of his head. “Momota-chan got his gross blood on me.”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “You—you planned all of this with Harukawa-san.”

“Hmm?” he turns to look at her. “Did you say something?”

Kaede feels just a touch of her sympathy drain as part of her remembers just how difficult talking to Ouma is. “You and Harukawa-san worked together,” she says. “To try and end the killing game.”

“That’s not a question, Akamatsu-chan,” he says, cheerily folding his hands behind his head. “But it is true. Obviously didn’t work out though.”

“Well—but still,” Shirogane says. “Harukawa-san she really did just… let herself be killed?”

“True,” Ouma says. “I know I said you guys did a good job figuring me out, but you did slightly miss that part. Harumaki-chan went to the hanger with everything all set up, including a knife so she wouldn’t die by getting crushed to death or anything since that would be the worst—or at least, I think it’d be the worst.”

“That… does not sound pleasant,” Tenko says.

“But yep!” he says. “When Harumaki-chan showed up, I figured out she had a plan pretty quick, and I was kinda dying to know what it was. Also could you imagine if things worked out differently and it was Akamatsu-chan trying to pull something like this off?”

Kaede blinks. “I hadn’t really thought about that.”

“But you just gave up,” Hoshi says. “So… all of this was for nothing.”

“Hoshi-chan, who do you think you’re talking to?” Ouma says. “Of course I haven’t given up—I just had to protect what was important. And besides ending a killing game by killing everyone is kind of a hollow victory, don’t you think?”

Kaede sees Momota clench his hands into his fists while Tenko says, “You wanted to save us. You and Harukawa-san, both. You wanted to end the killing game and also save us from the time limit.”

“I’m just the nicest guy, aren’t I?” Ouma says. “You know, for a while I was kicking around plans about pretending to be the mastermind, but those all kinda fell apart so I was just stuck being a goody-two-shoes. Still, though, I know I’m not that well liked, so you guys should stop lying and pretending to be all sad.”

“Kokichi,” Momota says.

Ouma ignores him. “Come on—you’re getting a pain like me out of your hair, but you’re all acting like someone ran over your cat or something. But then again, it was pretty fun to see how much everyone loved me after I was dead, so win some lose some.”

“How can you say that?” Tenko asks, near horrified.

“Yeah,” Shirogane says. “And also why did you do so much other weird stuff like get Momota-kun to bring you Kiibo-kun’s head?”

“Oh,” he says. “That’s a really good question, Shirogane-chan!”

“You’re not going to answer are you…” she says.

“Not unless you answer a question first!” Ouma says before pouting and pointing towards his crossed out portrait across the courtroom. “Is that really the best picture Monokuma had of me? He didn’t even get my good side!”

“That’s what you’re concerned about?” Shirogane mumbles to herself.

Ouma huffs. “Image is very important for a supreme leader. Well, at least Monokuma looks pretty stupid for declaring me dead even if he used an ugly picture.”

Kaede hears the bear in question begin to grumble darkly to himself. “But still, Ouma-kun,” she says. “Why did you set everything up to be so… weird? I know some things were to make us think Harukawa-san was the culprit, but a lot of other things were just kinda…” she finds herself trailing off, caught between trying to ask about the oddities of the case and why other parts seemed so needlessly cruel.

“Well,” Ouma says. “I’ll admit this was never my best lie, but then again I had to work with Harumaki-chan’s stupid plan. I’d like to think I managed to salvage something not completely terrible from it, though.” He beams as he folds his hands behind his head. “I did keep you guys guessing for a while after all, didn’t I? You should have seen the looks on your faces—man, I should really fake my death more often.”

“That’s…” Kaede says. “That’s it—that’s all you have to say?”

He hums. “I mean, you guys figured out most of the important stuff, and, well, I just wouldn’t be being true to myself unless I took a few secrets to my grave, right?”

“Ouma-san,” Tenko says, shooting an anxious glance to Momota. “Tenko thinks Kaede-san meant just… you’re going to die. Are you really not scared at all?”

Ouma follows her gaze, and his voice lowers from his previous cheerful tone. “No,” he says. “Harumaki-chan and I both knew we were going to die as soon as we started our plan to end the killing game. She was super annoying about it, too, and kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to go through with it after she gave me the antidote.”

“So you weren’t coerced then?” Hoshi says.

“Yup! That’s one thing you guys got wrong, so I really can only give you a ‘C’ plus or something,” Ouma says. “Especially since you guys haven’t figured out the real twist of the plan yet.”

“W-What?” Shirogane stammers. “I thought you said it was just to have a mistrial? Was that just a lie, too?”

Ouma presses a finger to his lips. “This is a mistrial,” he says. “Because Monokuma still has no idea who killed Harumaki-chan.”

Shirogane pales. “B-But you confessed, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you left the Exisal?”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “You… you haven’t given up trying to trick Monokuma, have you?”

Ouma grins. “I won’t give up even after my death—when I play a game, I play to win after all. And, well, I think it’s pretty safe to say that I won even if I did need stinky Harumaki-chan’s help.”

“Then,” Momota speaks up, voice hoarse. “Are you not the killer?”

Something in Ouma’s smile falters for just a moment, and Kaede notices he seems to look somewhere to the side of Momota when he speaks. “Afraid I can’t say, Momota-chan. Mostly, I just want to let Monokuma know that, sure, maybe it was me, but Harumaki-chan also could have used that knife before I crushed her body.”

“And because of the EMP,” Hoshi says. “Monokuma has no way to know what actually happened. That’s the other part of your plan, isn’t it?”

“Exactly!” Ouma says. “So, Monokuma, your thoughts?”

Kaede turns to Monokuma to see his robotic eyes narrowed and tiny fists curled in rage. “Man,” Monokuma says. “Even at the end you’re still a stubborn jerk.”

“That’s not an answer,” Kaede says. “Monokuma, do you know who killed Harukawa-san?”

He stares down at her, pausing for a moment. “The killer,” he says finally. “Is the killer, plain and simple, and if I say it’s Ouma Kokichi, then it’s Ouma Kokichi!”

“But you… don’t actually know, do you?” she persists.

Monokuma goes quiet.

Ouma smiles. “And I think that means I win.”

“Win nothing!” Monokuma shouts. “All you’re winning is an execution!”

Ouma sighs. “Man, two wrongful executions in one killing game? This game sucks…”

“Kokichi,” Momota says.

“That’s my name!” Ouma beams. “Funny hearing you use it. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder and all that, huh?”

Momota ignores the teasing. “Maki—she… she really agreed to everything right? She…”

“She did,” Ouma says, some of his cheer fading. “Me and her actually went back and forth a lot on who would do what, but she kept whining about this promise she made with you and how she wasn’t about to let you down and all that. So even if it was all pretend, she was pretty insistent on being the victim.”

Momota lets out a shaky sigh. “Yeah?”

“Mhmm,” he says. “And trust me—I wouldn’t lie about this.”

To Kaede’s surprise, Momota seems to accept that answer. “Right… right.”

“And she also wanted me to deliver a message to you, but I cut out a few parts since they were too mushy,” Ouma says. “Basically Harumaki-chan told me to tell you not to blame yourself. Keeping Momota-chan safe was too important and she said a bunch of stuff about how she knows you hated that but she’s too stubborn to listen and you guys have that in common and blah blah blah.”

“Is that true?” Momota asks. “Or are you… lying to make me feel better?”

“I,” Ouma turns slightly to fish a piece of paper out of his pocket. “Have a note from assassin-chan right here! I also added some additions at the end, though you should read her part first to save the best for last.”

Momota takes it, and something in his expression seems to crack as he breaths out, “you—”

“And that!” Monokuma announces. “Is enough of that! Sheesh, you kids can talk, but we got an execution to get to. And I’ve been really looking forward to this one.”

“Well,” Ouma says. “Sounds like that’s my cue, and,” he gives a knowing grin to Monokuma, “I would hate to keep your audience waiting.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Monokuma replies.

“That’s okay,” Ouma says. “Because that was also a lie.”

“Kokichi,” Momota says. “Quit messing around. You—you can still escape or…” he swallows. “You should have just let me—”

Ouma huffs. “And I keep telling you, that’s not an option, Momota-chan. Geeze, I’m literally dying and you still can’t listen.”

“No,” Momota says. “Because I’m not gonna let you die. We can still fight Monokuma, and—”

“No,” Ouma says. “You can’t. If it wasn’t a possibility when everyone was here to fight or when Iruma-chan had her remote, then why would it suddenly work now?”

“Because I’m not giving up,” Momota says. “I’m not just going to fail both you and Maki—I don’t care if I die, but I’m not just going to sit back and let my friend throw their life away.”

Ouma pauses then. His recovery comes fast, but Kaede notices that same familiar sadness she thought she saw when Momota had first hugged him. “Geeze, Momota-chan, you keep ruining my cool and mysterious image with all your lame speeches,” he says. “And also you still can’t listen.” He sighs. “Well, I did come prepared to Momota-chan proof my execution.”

Momota’s eyes widen. “You what?”

Ouma slips a familiar looking bottle out of his pocket, and before Kaede can even process what it is, he unscrews the lid and downs whatever liquid was inside. “Ugh, blechy,” he says, wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve.

“Ouma-san,” Tenko says cautiously. “What did you just do?”

“Drank lukewarm poison,” he says, sticking his tongue out. “That was so gross. I thought it was supposed to be flavorless.”

Shirogane pales. “You—the poison you had been carrying around! You just—”

“Spit it out!” Momota shouts. “Hurry, throw it up or—”

“Calm down,” Ouma says. “And doing stuff like that would ruin the point. But, ugh,” he brings a hand to his forehead. “I’m already all dizzy. I guess at least it didn’t lie about being stronger in large doses.”

“How much time do you have?” Hoshi asks, obviously trying to keep his voice even.

“Not a lot,” Ouma says. “Which means Monokuma-chan better hurry up if he wants to kill me.”

Momota just stares in horror. “Kokichi, how could you—”

Ouma suddenly jerks as he coughs into his hand, and the familiar image of blood on his hand and running from his mouth somehow makes him grin. “Hey, look, Momota-chan. We match.”

The sight is enough to make Monokuma scramble back to his chair to press his big red button to start the execution.

The last thing Kaede hears before it begins is Momota calling, “Wait, Kokichi—!”

Then,

**GAME OVER**

**OUMA KOKICHI HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY**

**TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT**

**King of Lies: The New Burning of the Versailles Witch**

Ouma doesn’t resist as the stage starts to build itself around him, nor does he struggle as a sea of Monokuma like spectators emerge to separate him from the others. Up on his platform, Kaede realizes he’s leaning against a large wooden stake and the way back down has been replaced with piles and piles of branches. Even as Ouma calmly keeps his hands folded in front of him, Kaede feels something sick rise up in her stomach.

Shirogane voices her thoughts aloud, mumbling to herself, “he’s going to be burned alive…”

The words set something off in Momota, and Kaede only hears him say under his breath, “like hell he is,” before he takes off towards the crowd of Monokumas.

Kaede only blinks as he runs past her, bodily pushing against each and every Monokuma slowing his progress. “Momota-san!” Tenko calls out. “Momota-san!”

Tenko keeps yelling for him to stop as she quickly follows through his roughly cleared trail towards Ouma. The thought forces Kaede to tear her eyes away from Momota—even as he shouts for Ouma to hold on and that he’s coming—towards the pyre. Then she sees it: a masked Monokuma bearing a torch flickering bright red against the rather murky medieval inspired backdrop.

Kaede gasps, bringing her hands to cover her mouth in horror. Momota starts shouting louder, pushing harder against the Monokumas daring to stand between him and Ouma. And Ouma seems oddly peaceful. At this distance, she can barely see a slight sheen of sweat beginning to manifest on his pale forehead, but what catches her attention more is the thin line of blood beginning to run from the corner of his mouth down his chin.

The flames keep rising closer and closer, and Kaede can barely force herself to look as Momota finally reaches the base of Ouma’s pyre now completely engulfed in fire.

To Ouma, the world slowly blurs with the poison running brightly through his system, and he looks down through the haze of smoke and fire when Momota calls his name.

“Kokichi!” he shouts. “Just hold on a little longer!”

The words mean little to Ouma as the slight blood running from his mouth grows and begins to stain his uniform as it drips off of him. The fires around him are raging stronger and stronger, but Momota still tries to move closer.

Ouma hears him hiss once at drawing too near, but he keeps going even as Tenko screams that he’s hurting himself. She tries to pull him away, but he fights against her grip, and through the daze, Ouma sees Momota’s hand reaching out towards him even from so far away.

In his poison addled mind, all Ouma can think is that’s a nice last thing to see.

The flames barely begins to graze against the soles of his shoes when Ouma closes his eyes and his hands held clasped in front of him droop down to his sides.

Momota keeps shouting, somehow becoming more desperate in his goal once Ouma stops moving while Tenko tries her best to restrain him from attempting to climb through the fire. The crowds of Monokumas seem to dissipate all at once, and Kaede hears a few grumbled words of frustration about being deprived of a proper execution.

With them gone, any grandeur or showiness the execution had fades into nothing, and Kaede is left standing watching Momota finally collapse, his chest heaving with coughs or sobs or a combination of both while Tenko frantically hovers over him. Ouma’s still body goes up in flames, and the sick smell of burning flesh that Kaede remembers all to clearly from Saihara’s execution rushes over her, making her stomach twist and her throat feel sour and rotten.

She takes her eyes off Ouma’s body again to see Tenko trying to urgently get Momota back onto his feet even as he refuses to cooperate with her, all the while chanting at him not to look. Kaede watches the miserable scene before her, sees the blood and the tears and the burns when Momota finally lets Tenko act as his crutch. Tenko shouts to the others that they need to get back to the school so she can help him, and Kaede nods along numbly, allowing herself to be herded into the elevator with the others.

Kaede keeps watching Momota even as he goes quiet—accepting his place to just hang off of Tenko. She remembers being so angry at him before the trial. Wanting to hurt him and show him he was wrong and rub it in his face.

Momota shudders when Tenko shifts slightly, and Kaede can’t tell if it’s from pain or an attempt to disguise another sob. Kaede can’t tell if it’s possible for her to feel anger anymore. She at least knows she doesn’t feel it at him.

No one protests the walk to the dorms, and the only speech directed towards hers is when Kiibo springs to life again, and Tenko seems slightly frazzled as she hands him to Kaede. “Please, could you take this? Tenko really needs to—”

“Of course,” Kaede says.

Tenko gives her a grateful smile. Momota doesn’t say anything.

The two disappear into Tenko’s room, and neither Hoshi nor Shirogane seem inclined to start any conversation as Kaede heads back to her own room. Inside, she takes a deep breath before saying, “What is it, Kiibo-kun?”

“I am sorry if I am interrupting anything, Akamatsu-san,” he says. “But I believe there is something I need to tell you.”

“Yeah?” she says, still distracted with the events of trial burning in her mind.

“Last night I was finally able to execute the code I was unsure about,” Kiibo says. “And I am finally comfortable saying this aloud as I believe there is no longer anything Monokuma can do about it.”

That catches Kaede’s attention a bit more as she stares down at him. “Really?”

“After the loss of my body, but before her death,” he says. “Iruma-san went to what I have learned from my file gathering is something called the ‘Mother Monokuma.’ From there, she set up everything I would need to remotely access the network at a later date, helped by the fact that as a monopad, I am already semi-connected to the school’s system.”

Kaede nods. “That sounds… good, I think?”

“I believe it is,” Kiibo says. “And I also believe I am secured enough now that Monokuma cannot so easily remove me. With this, I think it could potentially be our key to ending the killing game. And…” he pauses. “From the data I have gathered, I also think I have discovered the identity of the mastermind.”

Kaede takes a deep breath.

“Would you like to hear it?” Kiibo asks.

“No, it’s okay,” Kaede says. “I think I already know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted this chapter out earlier but then it turned into the longest chapter in this fic by far, haha. Anyway, this has been a fun chapter that I've definitely seen a lot of theories for including some people who figured me out almost immediately! But whether you predicted it right away or weren't thinking too much about specifics, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Also to anyone wondering, Celeste's execution has always been one of my favorites, haha.
> 
> Next chapter is also going to be bonus chapter featuring the scenes Kaede would have gotten if she had certain items, and I am also going to take that opportunity to link as much of the wonderful fan art I have gotten as I can! I have quite a few links collected already, but if I don't have yours, please just let me know in a comment on either this chapter or the next one since I would love to share it!


	36. II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please check the author's note at the end for some wonderful fanart!

_Silver Earring, Chapter One_

“Ah, Akamatsu-san,” Amami says. “What do you have there?”

Kaede snaps her head up to see him looking over her shoulder, though at enough of a distance so as not to loom over her. He’s very aware of himself, she thinks. She thinks it again as she turns to address him and makes note of the careful styling of his hair, the plethora of rings clinking together on his fingers, and the piercings running along the shell of his ear. “Oh just,” she holds up the small silver hoops in her hand. “I got these from the Monomono Machine.”

“Ah,” Amami says, gently taking them from her. “These look like they’re pretty nice quality, actually, but Akamatsu-san,” he tilts his head slightly to get a better look at her. “You don’t have pierced ears, do you?”

“Nah, I always thought it would be too much upkeep, especially on days where I could barely pull myself away from the piano long enough to eat,” Kaede says with a laugh. “Do you want them?”

His smile is serene but focused somehow. “Sure, though I don’t think I would feel comfortable taking them from you without giving you something in return.”

“No, that’s really okay,” Kaede says. “I mean, I’m only giving it to you because I don’t want it. It’s not really an ‘out of the kindness of my heart’ thing or anything like that.”

Amami laughs. “Well, I managed to pick up some stuff earlier that I’ve been meaning to find a good home for, too. So really you’d be doing me a favor. I mean,” he pauses, his posture becoming lax as if to seem as unthreatening as possible. “Only if you want that is—I don’t want to be pushy or anything.”

“Oh, you’re not—don’t worry about that,” Kaede says. “And, well,” she shrugs. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”

“Sounds good,” he says. “If you meet me outside the dorms near the arbor a little later, I think I might have some stuff together by then.”

Kaede nods. “Okay—I’ll see you there!”

Amami is exactly where he said he would be when Kaede leaves the school a little later. As she approaches, she sees a variety of impressively shiny jewelry sitting out before him. A few of the others walking past her seem to spy him, too, though they keep walking with little more than exchanged whispers and obviously curious glances. 

When Amami notices her, he waves her over nonchalantly, seeming unaware of the spectacle he’s making of himself. Kaede, however, can’t help but feel a bit self-conscious as she hurries the last few steps towards him. “I didn’t keep you waiting too long, did I?” she asks

He shakes his head. “No, not at all. Anyway,” he looks back at his collection stewn over the table. “I had a lot of extra stuff in my room. I guess they’re for if I lost the ones I’m wearing right now, but,” he shrugs. “It’s fine if that happens.”

Kaede tears her eyes away from a rather pretty jade necklace to look back at him. “You don’t care? But aren’t they yours?”

“Well,” Amami says. “I think that’s kind of hard to say. I’m… not exactly sure if I’m a jewelry kind of person actually.” 

“You’re not sure?” Kaede asks. “What do you mean?”

Amami laughs off her concerned tone, quickly waving his hands in surrender. “Oh, no—don’t mind me. I’m not quite sure what I meant either. Don’t worry about it.”

Kaede stares at him, not bothering to hide her suspicious expression when Amami seems to spot something over her shoulder. “Oh,” he says. “Saihara-kun, are you waiting for Akamatsu-san?”

Kaede whips around to see Saihara standing a few paces back, his hands flying to fidget with his hat. She feels her smile grow naturally to try and reflect enough comfort to stop him from running away. “Hey, that’s right—didn’t you want to tell me something earlier?”

“Ah, um, yes,” Saihara says. “But it’s fine if you’re busy right now. I wouldn’t want to interrupt—”

“No,” Kaede says. “Come here—Amami-kun was just showing me his jewelry. He was gonna trade me.”

That catches Saihara’s attention enough to draw him a few steps closer. “‘Trade you?’”

“Akamatsu-san found some earrings she thought I might like,” Amami says. “I said I’d only take them in a fair deal but now…” he tilts his head back to his possessions. “I think I might just want to give all of this away anyway.”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “Really? Well, you can’t give it all to me. I barely wear jewelry as it is. Saihara-kun, you have to take some, too.”

“O-Oh, I couldn’t possibly—” 

“Come on! He just said he wanted to give it away,” Kaede pushes. “It’d be rude to say no.”

Saihara shifts slightly. “Akamatsu-san, I don’t really wear stuff like this.”

“But you could start!” she presses. “Amami-kun, what do you think would be a good look for Saihara-kun?”

Amami just laughs as Saihara stares at him like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. “I’m not really a stylist, but let me see.”

He approaches Saihara, silently asking permission to examine him that Saihara grants with a meek nod. As Amami ducks his head slightly to get a better view of Saihara’s face from under his hat, Kaede says, “Not really a stylist? But you’re like one of the most stylish people here. I’m sure Saihara-kun would look super cute if you gave him a makeover.”

That catches Saihara’s attention, and he snaps his head to look at Kaede, face flushed. “A-Akamatsu-san, you can’t just say things like that…”

“Yeah,” Amami says. “What if I do a terrible job?”

“That’s not what I’m concerned about…” Saihara mumbles to himself.

“You won’t,” Kaede says, oblivious to Saihara’s distress. “And you’ll never know if you don’t try, right? Okay, I’ll wait right here and you can take him back to your room and show me when you’re done.”

“Akamatsu-san,” Saihara says. “What are you volunteering me for?”

Amami just laughs. “Well, if Saihara-kun’s okay with it, but I’m telling you you’re going to be disappointed.”

“I won’t,” Kaede says. “Just give him a look that will make him feel super confident! And maybe you’ll discover that your real talent was Ultimate Stylist all along.”

Saihara pauses, seeming to understand her intentions all at once. “Ah, Akamatsu-san…”

Amami’s smile grows just a bit sad all of a sudden. “I’m still not sure about that, but,” he shakes his head and whatever melancholy that was drawing over him vanishes. “Anyway, Saihara-kun, don’t get too mad at me if it turns out bad, alright?”

He grabs Saihara’s hand, and the other boy’s eyes widen as he remembers exactly what is happening again. He stammers a few words of hesitation that get drowned out by Kaede happily telling them to hurry back soon.

When they do return, Kaede applauds the rather minute changes made to Saihara’s appearance while Amami only smiles somewhat distantly. “I’m glad you like it, Akamatsu-san, though I don’t think I did much.”

Kaede shakes her head before reaching out to clasp Saihara’s hands. “Are you kidding? You did a great job! Don’t you think so, too, Saihara-kun?”

“Ah, yeah,” he says, eyes not straying from where Kaede’s hands touch his. “Amami-kun really knows his stuff.”

“You’re both very kind, but you don’t need to flatter me,” Amami says. “Anyway, Akamatsu-san, is it alright if I just pawn all this stuff off on you? I kind of…” he has a strange far away look in his eyes as he says, “need to be somewhere else right now…”

“Um, okay?” Kaede says. “Where are you—”

“It’s no problem, Amami-kun,” Saihara says. “We’ll take care of it.”

Amami nods gratefully and leaves them with little more than a polite goodbye. As soon as he’s out of hearing range, Kaede says, “did he say something to you?”

“Not really anything in particular,” Saihara says. “But… I think Amami-kun is the kind of person who needs time to himself sometimes.”

“I guess,” Kaede says, not entirely happy with his response. “I hope he’s okay. I just don’t think anything good can come from running off and doing stuff all on your own without confiding in anyone, you know?”

Saihara smiles softly. “I think so, but some people have a harder time asking for help than others.”

“That’s stupid,” Kaede says. “If you need something, you should be able to rely on the people around you. Like if you ever needed something, you’d come to me, right? Because I’m definitely going to rely on you.”

“W-Well, I’m really not that reliable—”

“Saihara-kun,” Kaede says. “That’ll only be true if you keep saying that about yourself over and over again. And I already said I’m going to be counting on you, so you better not let me down!”

“I’ll try not to,” Saihara says, smiling slightly at the encouragement. 

“You definitely won’t,” Kaede says. “Especially with your new super confident super sexy look, right?”

“With my new—” Saihara’s face flushes. “A-Akamatsu-san—”

Kaede claps her hands. “Now come on! Tell me everything that Amami-kun did.”

Saihara stammers his first few words, trying to collect himself enough to entertain Kaede’s encouraging questions for the rest of the strangely bright afternoon.

-

_Stainless Tray, Chapter Two_

“Kiibo-kun,” Tojo says, addressing him from across the breakfast table. “Would you mind assisting me in carrying these last few cups into the kitchen?”

Kiibo beams happily as he gathers as many empty mugs into his arms as he can, all clinking together loudly as he does so. “Of course, Tojo-san!” he says, completely unaware of the concern on her face as the cups balance precariously in his grip. “Is there anything else you would like me to take while I’m here?”

“No, just those are fine for now,” she says. “It’s better to do many short trips rather than risk breaking something.”

Kiibo nods sagely at her words. “I see—I will make a note of that for the future.”

“Please do,” Tojo says. “It would be different if we had a dinner cart or a tray, but for now we will simply make do.”

Though most of the other students had already cleared out, from her place still at the table, Kaede says, “actually, I think I picked up something like a tray a few days ago. I didn’t have any plans to use it for anything, so you can have it if you want, Tojo-san.”

“Really?” Kiibo says. “May I practice with it?”

“Ah,” Tojo cuts in. “Perhaps ‘practice’ is the keyword there. While it is simple to use, practice with composure and balance is necessary first.”

“Yes, I suppose that does make sense,” Kiibo says, though Kaede can’t help but detect a not of disappointment in his voice.

“Well,” she says. “Is there a place where Kiibo-kun could practice?”

Tojo pauses for a moment before saying, “actually I believe there is. My lab recently opened, and it did seem to be exactly made for such things. Kiibo-kun,” she says. “Would you like to practice my maid duties with me there?”

His eyes practically gleam as he answers. “Of course, Tojo-san. I would be honored to.”

She smiles gently at his response before turning to Kaede. “Akamatsu-san, would you like to come as well? If Kiibo-kun is to practice serving people, he should have live guests to make the experience worthwhile.”

“Oh, sure,” Kaede says. “But it’d be a little awkward if I was the only person there…”

Tojo nods. “I see. If you request it, then I shall find other guests to attend as well.”

“Okay, that sounds nice,” Kaede says. “So I guess it’s a request then.”

“Very well,” she says. “I will come to get you later when everything is prepared.”

Tojo remained true to her word, and only a little later Kaede found herself being escorted through the school to her lab.

Inside, Shirogane, Shinguji, and Gonta were already seated around the elegant table. However, none of them pay much interest to Kaede entering, instead focusing on Kiibo balancing an exceptionally full and exceptionally wobbly tray in each hand.

Tojo rushes forward to help him, saying in one breath, “Akamatsu-san please take a seat.”

With the trays secure enough in Tojo’s hand, Kaede then gains the attention of the others as she slips into the chair next to Shinguji. “Ah, right, thank you,” she says. “Is this everyone?”

Tojo nods. “I invited everyone who I believed would enjoy such an event.”

“Tojo-san told me we were going to be having a tea party,” Shirogane says. “And, well, I’ve kind of plainly always wanted to try milk tea.”

“‘Milk tea?’” Gonta asks. “But Shirogane-san had milk in her tea this morning.”

“Oh, no, no,” she shakes her head. “It’s different. It’s like the milk is in the tea the entire time you make it. At least I think that’s right. Tojo-san said she knew how to make it at least, so I trust her.”

Shinguji nods. “That appears logical, however, I believe Kiibo-kun will be handling most aspects of our service as this is his ‘training’ after all.”

“Oh, right…” Shirogane says, the enthusiasm draining out of her voice.

“I-I will do a fine job!” Kiibo says, catching word of their conversation. “There is no need to worry, Shirogane-san!”

“And I assume Tojo-san will also be at his side every step of the way,” Shinguji says. “It is truly interesting to observe the act of teaching. Seeing how one does not only demonstrate their skills but rather compartmentalizes them in order to explain to another person does wonders for examining how one views the aspects of their own work.”

“Oh, wow,” Kaede says. “I guess you’re right, but I never really thought of it that way.”

He nods. “Yes—while many can certainly become skilled at their own profession that does not necessarily equate to them being adept at teaching it to another. For instance, Akamatsu-san, if you were to teach someone to play the piano, where would you begin? Posture? Reading music? Perhaps instrument care or even its history?”

“That’s actually a really good point,” Kaede says. “I guess I’d have to think it over.”

“G-Gonta sees!” Gonta exclaims, tripping over his words in his excitement. “So Gonta should find a good teacher if he wants to be a gentleman?”

“I would advise it, yes,” Shinguji says.

“You could probably ask Tojo-san,” Shirogane says. “When she’s not helping Kiibo-kun, that is.”

At her words, Tojo sweeps towards them, skillfully laying down delicate looking china cups before each of them as if it was second nature. “I could attempt it,” she says. “However, if you would like a professional as Shinguji-kun suggested, then I must warn you my talents primarily lie in service rather than manners specifically. Though if it is a request, I will do any necessary research beforehand to ensure I can assist to the best of my abilities.”

“Oh,” Gonta says. “That sounds like a lot of work. Gonta doesn’t know if he can ask that of Tojo-san.”

“Do not worry yourself over me,” Tojo says. “I assure you it would be no trouble. If you would like to request my serv—”

She cuts herself off at rather loud clatter of a large covered serving tray falling to the ground followed by Kiibo saying, “oh no! Stop!”

Tojo looks over the table seemingly undisturbed by the tiny sandwiches now decorating the floor of her lab. “I will be back shortly.”

As she hurries away, Kaede says, “Well, Gonta-kun, if you really want a teacher, then there’s probably someone else you could talk to besides Tojo-san. Like… Shinguji-kun.”

Shinguji’s eyebrows rise at the suggestion. “Me? I must say, I do not believe I have ever considered myself a gentleman.”

“Really? Why not?” Kaede asks. “You’re always calm and talk really maturely. Also if you know about customs and manners in a whole bunch of cultures, you could probably teach Gonta-kun a thing or two about etiquette.”

He pauses, and Kaede thinks she sees amusement flickering in his eyes. “Perhaps. Though I still doubt I would qualify as a gentleman.”

“Huh?” Shirogane asks. “Why is that?”

“Well,” Shinguji says. “While it is true that I have learned about the proper social customs in many places I have visited, and could likely impart them to someone else… I have been neglecting other responsibilities in my life.”

“Like what?” Gonta asks. “Does Shinguji-kun need help with something?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Shinguji says. “However, I am afraid I could not ask for your help, Gonta-kun.”

Gonta seems crestfallen as he asks, “Gonta can’t help?”

“No,” he says. “While you are very kind and brave, you are not the kind of person I am looking for. Please do not take it personally.”

“Gonta will not,” he says. “But Shinguji-kun is looking for a person?”

“I am,” Shinguji says. “Specifically, I am looking for those who could be friends with my sister, however, I believe she would only get along with young women.”

“Oh, like me and Shirogane-san?” Kaede asks. 

Kaede thinks she can see the fabric of his mask twitch to indicate a smile. “Exactly. The two of you and Tojo-san as well, I believe are the exact kind of friends my sister would be delighted to meet.”

Kaede can’t help but smile back at his praise. “Well, if that’s the case, then I don’t think either of us would mind doing something like that once we got out of here. Right, Shirogane-san?”

She looks across the table to see Shirogane’s gone a few shades paler. “Shirogane-san?” Kiibo says, suddenly appearing behind her, armed with a new covered tray. “Are you alright?”

“H-Huh?” she stutters. “Y-Yes, I’m fine. I was just… spacing out.”

“If you are feeling ill,” Shinguji says. “Perhaps someone could escort you to your room. I personally would not mind taking a brief break from our tea party to assist you.”

“N-No, no! That’s fine!” Shirogane says hurriedly. “After all, I’m still waiting for my milk tea.”

She laughs nervously, and Kaede can’t help but feel like she missed something even as the rest of their afternoon goes on in relative peace with the exception of a few dropped tea cups.

-

_Home Planet, Chapter Two_

Momota lies down on his back and points to the stars shining through the cage after training. “You know,” he says. “I was thinking the other day that it’d be nice to just sleep under the stars one night.”

Kaede sits beside him, knees pulled to her chest. “Wouldn’t that be kind of dangerous, though?”

“Nah,” he says. “I trust everyone here. And besides, I could probably take ‘em even if someone did try something.”

Tenko rolls her eyes. “Typical male overconfidence. Tenko bets you wouldn’t even wakeup and that you snore, too.”

“Hey,” Momota says. “I’d totally wakeup!”

“But you do snore.”

“So?” Momota says. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Kaede says. “If you could, I guess it would be fun, but I wouldn’t really know. When I was a kid, my parents wouldn’t even let me sleep outside in a tent.”

Momota laughs. “God, when I was a kid I probably killed my grandpa’s back making him sleep on the ground with me.”

“Why would you torture your poor grandfather like that?” Tenko gasps. 

“It was him or my grandma,” he says. “I never really knew my parents.”

“Oh,” Tenko says. “Tenko is sorry. She didn’t know…”

Momota just laughs again. “Don’t worry about it, but, man, if I knew saying that was all it would take to get you to like me—”

“Tenko takes it back!” she says. “Momota-san is still terrible!”

“Hey, calm down—just a little joke,” he says, still smiling brightly. “But, man, now I’m getting all nostalgic. I remember I kept whining about not being able to go outside when it rained, so my grandma got me this, like, tiny home planet system thing that would project stars on the ceiling in my room.”

“Wait, ‘home planet?’” Kaede says. “Is it like a little ball thing with a bunch of lights? I think I picked up something like that a little while ago, actually.”

Momota sits up on his elbows, new excitement in his eyes. “Oh shit, really?”

“Yeah,” Kaede says, shifting to grab it from her backpack. “This right?”

Momota takes in gingerly, turning it over in his hands a few times. “Yeah. Oh, this is great. You know, we should totally set this up in the gym tomorrow so everyone can see.”

“The ceiling there is pretty high, though,” Kaede says. “I don’t know if one this small could really be anything impressive.”

Though careful to keep her distance, Tenko leans slightly towards Momota to get a better look. “Maybe Iruma-san would be able to make something to help boost the power?”

Momota’s eyes light up as he jumps to his feet. “Chabashira, you’re a genius! Hey, Iruma’s probably still in her lab, right? I’m gonna get her to make something right now!”

“Momota-san,” Tenko says. “You should not bother Iruma-san with—hey! Tenko is still talking to you!”

She shouts the last part as he already takes off running with childlike enthusiasm. Kaede pats Tenko’s shoulder. “Just leave him be.”

Tenko huffs. “Boys never listen.”

“Well,” Kaede says. “If Iruma-san decides to say no and just swear at him until he leaves, then he might have to learn.”

The next morning, Kaede learns just how inaccurate her prediction was as Iruma cackles when she announces, “guess which girl genius inventor just single handedly made your miserable lives just a little less pathetic.”

“Hey!” Momota shouts. “It was my idea!”

Iruma throws her hair over her shoulder. “And I got the idiot to lick my boots when he begged me to do it.”

“Shut the fuck up! That didn’t happen!” Momota says. “A-And I’m not an idiot!”

“No fair,” Ouma says. “If Momota-chan’s going to lick anyone’s boots it should be mine! After all, he did agree to be my underling last night!”

“That didn’t fucking happen either!” 

Kaede just rolls her eyes as she turns to Momota. “So, Iruma-san agreed to make something?”

“Yeah!” he beams. “And it’s all ready to go as soon as you guys are ready! We’re gonna set up in the gym after breakfast.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Ouma says. “I wanna go! I wanna see the dumb thing Iruma-chan and Momota-chan made!”

“You’re not invited,” Momota says.

“Yeah!” Iruma chimes in. “No fucking dumpster babies allowed!”

As Ouma begins to sniffle, Tenko turns excitedly to a half asleep Yumeno. “Yumeno-san, would you like to come, too?”

“Huh?” she says. “Are Momota and Iruma putting on a magic show?”

“No,” Tenko says. “But Iruma-san made something to make stars glow on the ceiling in the gym.”

“So it’s magic,” Yumeno concludes. “I dunno. I’ll have to think it over.”

“Tenko thinks you should come,” she says. “Even if some terrible boys will be there, Tenko doesn’t think there’s anything m-more romantic than looking out at the stars with someone, and since Yumeno-san always goes to bed early—”

“‘Looking out at the stars?’” Angie chimes, suddenly appearing behind Yumeno. “Ooh, that sounds super inspirational to Angie! Maybe it would inspire God, too!”

“Oh,” Yumeno says. “And if that happens, you’ll make a new painting, right?”

Angie clasps her hands. “Right! Right! God says the stars are positively divine! They might be so divine that they could help Himiko with her magic!”

“In that case, I guess I could go,” Yumeno says.

“T-Tenko is happy to hear that!” 

Kaede just smiles and shakes her head as she hears her friends clamor over those who invited themselves along.

When Kaede makes it to the gym, she sees everyone who agreed to come is already there, and that the small home planet system she had given to Momota the night before has been thoroughly transformed into a mammoth of a machine. Iruma flings an arm out to the side to present it, accompanied by her introduction of, “listen up motherfuckers: this here is the work of the one, the only, archangel Miu Iru—”

“Boo! Hurry up!” Ouma shouts from the small assembled crowd. “We didn’t come here to hear you run your gross mouth, you filthy pig!”

Iruma turns pink. “F-Filthy p-pig?”

Momota runs a hand over his face. “You just had to do that, didn’t you?”

Ouma just giggles as Tenko scolds him for speaking to Iruma that way. Kaede sighs, “Iruma-san, are you ready to start?”

“Yeah, yeah, just hold your tits for a sec,” she says, recovering quickly as she becomes to adjust the rather complex looking controls. “And someone hit the fucking lights.”

“Angie’s got it!” Angie says, happily skipping over to do just that.

They’re in darkness just long enough for Momota to curse at Ouma for ‘accidentally’ stepping on his foot when splatters of blue and white and purple and yellow and red and every color in between shine in bright arcs above them.

Kaede finds herself awestruck. “Oh, wow…”

She identifies the shapes as galaxies or stars or other astronomical phenomena she’s not familiar with even as Momota eagerly names each and every pattern appearing. They spin slowly, occasionally changing to show some new picture of the night sky.

“That’s the andromeda galaxy,” she hears Momota say. “And that’s a close up of the Orion Nebula, and that’s—”

“Ooh, I didn’t know I had my own nebula,” Ouma says.

“Orion Nebula, dummy,” Momota says. “It’s a stellar nursery—a place where stars are formed.”

“Oh, I see, so it does belong to me!” 

“You can’t own space, asshole.”

Ouma grins up at him. “Just watch me.”

Kaede smiles as she instead switches to tune into Yumeno saying, “yup. Definitely magic.”

“Oh no, Himiko,” Angie says. “God told Angie that he made everything, and he made it especially beautiful to inspire us!”

“He really did all that?” Yumeno asks. 

“Yup, yup!” she answers. “And he also did it to light our way at night! In Angie’s village, we’d celebrate the stars and thank God for giving us such a wonderful world!”

“Huh, that sounds like a pretty nice God,” Yumeno says. “Though I still think at least part of it’s magic.”

“Oh, maybe, maybe!” Angie agrees easily. 

“Tenko thinks it’s nice,” Tenko cuts in. “When Tenko was in training and she’d get upset, sometimes her master would tell her to look at the sky and think how big the world is. And also to remember that it’s all connected through neo-aikido!”

Yumeno turns to her. “Stars are connected to you?”

“Hell yeah, they are!” Momota chimes in. “Everything in the universe is made up of the same atoms, so like if you go way, way back before the earth existed all your atoms were probably a bunch of space junk!”

“So,” Kaede says. “We’re technically made of stars? Kinda?”

“Yeah!” he says brightly. 

“And when you die,” Angie says. “God says you go back to the stars to be with him.”

“Tenko isn’t sure about all that,” Tenko says. 

Yumeno just stares up, seemingly transfixed by the shifting patterns. “I dunno. That sounds pretty nice… just bein’ a star forever.”

“Yumeno-san…” Tenko says.

“Well, not forever,” Momota says. “I mean, maybe if you’re a red dwarf, but if you’re a red giant or something, then you’ll probably blow up after—”

“Momota-san!” Tenko says. “Do not ruin Yumeno-san’s dreams!”

“I’m not ruining shit! It’s just science!” he protests, pointing at another vibrant pattern. “Look—that’s what I’m talking about. That’s a supernova.”

“Boom!” Ouma cheers. “Explosion! Yumeno-chan will be gone in seconds!”

“Yeah,” Momota says. 

“Yay! Momota-chan agreed with me!”

“Wait! No, I didn’t!”

“Yes, you did!”

“Both of you stop tormenting Yumeno-san!”

Kaede takes a step away from the three arguing to hear Yumeno softly asking Angie, “hey, Angie, can you ask God if everyone who died went to space with him?”

“Of course, of course,” Angie says. “But Angie doesn’t even need to ask. She’s prayed super hard, so she knows that Shuuichi and Rantarou are definitely with God now.”

“That’s good,” Yumeno says. “So I guess we don’t need to worry about them…”

“Nope! God said he’d take care of them,” Angie says. “Kaede, did you hear that? Everything will be okay for them.”

Kaede jolts slightly at the address. “A-Ah yeah, I’m,” she takes a deep breath to steady herself. The ceiling shifts again to what Kaede remembers Momota had said was a place where stars were born. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“Uh-huh,” Angie says. “So God says you don’t have to be so sad anymore.”

Kaede’s eyes widen at the comment, then she hears Tenko’s voice behind her, “That’s really nice, Angie-san, but Kaede-san should express her emotions how she needs to, even if your God is… doing things. Tenko thinks it’s okay to be upset when you lose someone, even if it couldn’t be helped.”

Kaede turns to look back at her, seeing that Ouma seems to have dragged Momota off to some other part of the gym leaving the girls alone. “Tenko-san…”

“Hmm, I dunno,” Yumeno hums. “If what Momota was saying earlier was true and magic just keeps us altogether, do people ever just disappear? Well, unless,” she shifts her hat, “they use more magic to disappear.”

Kaede just smiles down at her as both Tenko and Angie eagerly agree. Then she hears Iruma shout, “Alright bitches! Enough moping around!” Kaede glances back at her to see Tojo now by her side. “Frigid Mc-no-tits over here rounded up all the other losers, and when they get here, it’s time to fucking party! Break out the booze!”

“There will be no alcoholic beverages,” Tojo amends politely. “Iruma-san meant to say—”

She’s cut off by exceptionally loud music that starts to blare from Iruma’s machine. Tojo seems slightly irritated but remains composed, even as Iruma starts jumping around her excitedly in what Kaede thinks is supposed to be her version of dancing.

The others come quickly, some like Gonta and Kiibo openly express their amazement at the scenery, while others like Hoshi and Maki, who surprisingly showed up at all, remain more reserved. 

“Oh,” Gonta says. “Is this a dance? Gonta has never been to a dance before.”

Momota snorts. “No, Iruma’s just being fucking weir—”

“Of course it is!” Ouma says. “And Momota-chan’s my partner!”

“Like hell I’ll—quit pulling!”

“Ooh, how exciting!” Angie claps. “Himiko, God says you should dance with Angie!”

“Huh?” Yumeno says. “That sounds like a lot of work…”

“T-Tenko thinks it would be fun!” Tenko stammers, face flaming red. “Tenko w-would also like to dance with Yumeno-san!”

Yumeno just juts out her lower lip. “Nyeh… so tiring…”

Kaede watches as everyone chooses to participate at various levels from Ouma eagerly dragging Momota around in what looks more like a game of tag than anything else, to Maki standing quietly against the wall, though oddly not leaving.

As she watches, she doesn’t even notice Shirogane right next to her until the other girl speaks. “It seems like everyone is having so much fun. I don’t think I ever expected anything like this to happen in a situation like ours.”

“I didn’t really either,” Kaede says. “But… it’s nice. Maybe it doesn’t really solve anything but,” she sighs. “It’s still nice.”

“Yeah, seeing everyone so happy,” Shirogane says. “And so full of hope.”

“‘Hope?’” Kaede asks. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, just, you know,” Shirogane says before shaking her with a laugh. “Sorry, that probably didn’t make any sense. I don’t know why I was even just thinking something like that now.”

“Right,” Kaede says. Then after a moment, “hey, Shirogane-san, do you want to dance with me?”

Shirogane blinks at her. “Huh? Really? Are you sure you want to with someone as plain as me?”

Kaede laughs. “You gotta stop saying that. And yeah, why not? It’s not like there’s anyone to embarrass ourselves in front of besides these guys, and they’re, well, you know.” With that she pointedly jerks her chin at Iruma’s rather awkward flailing at the front of the room.

“Huh, good point,” Shirogane says. 

With that, Shirogane consents easily enough, and Kaede finds herself actually having fun under their manmade stars.

-

_Hand Mirror, Chapter Three_

At breakfast one morning, Momota sighs, obviously irritated, before jerking to a standing position, catching the attention of everyone else gathered. “Alright, you know what,” he announces, pressing his fists together. “I’ve decided. If everyone else is gonna form their stupid student council crap, then the rest of us have to do something, too.”

“Um, ‘the rest of us?’” Shirogane asks.

“Oh, huh, huh?” Angie asks. “Does everyone else want to join the student council, too? Angie will have to ask God first, before—”

“No,” Momota says. “I’m not joining your weird cult. Instead, I say the rest of us just form our own group.”

Kaede frowns. “Isn’t that just going to divide us more?”

“Akamatsu-chan, shh!” Ouma hushes. “I wanna hear Momota-chan’s dumb plan.”

“Your own group?” Angie asks. “Kaito, is God talking to you, too?”

“No,” he says. “I’m just saying this as me—I don’t need any shitty God to boss me around.”

Kaede notices Angie’s smile darken slightly at that answer, but Gonta speaks up before she can protest. “Um, Gonta is confused. Momota-kun, what are we doing?”

That seems to catch Momota slightly off guard. “Uh, well—”

“Ha!” Iruma shouts. “Didn’t think that fucking far did you, Momoron?”

“I did, too!” he says. “Uh, let’s see. It’s me, Ouma, Gonta, and Hoshi, right? So we’ll do some manly bonding activity.”

Tenko’s upper lip curls. “Gross.”

Iruma flushes. “Manly boning?”

“I believe he said ‘bonding,’ Iruma-san,” Kiibo corrects.

“Momota,” Hoshi says. “Shirogane’s also not on the student council.”

Then Tenko gasps. “Momota-san! How dare you forget Shirogane-san! Apologize right now!”

“A-Ah, it’s really okay,” Shirogane says. “I mean, it only makes sense to forget someone as plain as me, you know.”

“Still,” Tenko says. “Poor Shirogane-san should not be forced into… whatever disgusting male degenerate bonding activity Momota-san wants to do.”

“Oh, Tsumugi!” Angie says. “You should join Angie’s student council!”

“No, wait Shirogane,” Momota says. “I’ll get Harumaki to come too, don’t you worry.”

Shirogane simply shrinks under the sudden attention on her. “Oh, uh, okay…”

“Boo! Don’t invite killer girl,” Ouma says. 

Momota ignores him to slam his fists together. “Alright—everyone who’s not in a cult follow me to the second floor.” 

With that, he heads towards the exit. No one else makes a move to follow him before Ouma chirps, “okay! Guess it’ll be a date for just the two of us!”

Momota squawks in protest as Gonta looks down to ask Hoshi, “Hoshi-kun do you want to go? Gonta thinks it might be fun to do… ‘manly bonding.’”

Hoshi shrugs. “Well, suppose it could kill a few hours.”

“Ah, if everyone’s going,” Shirogane says. “Then I guess I’ll go, too.”

Kaede watches them as they leave, distantly hearing Yumeno finally stir from her nap when Momota slams the doors closed behind them. “Huh? Where’d everyone go…?”

Tenko starts to fuss over her while Angie hums. “Hmm, hmm, hmm, God isn’t so sure about that,” she says. “Angie wants everyone to have fun, buuut God thinks they should have supervised fun.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “You want someone to spy on them?”

“God just thinks someone should check on them!” Angie corrects. “Just to make sure—”

“I-I’ll do it!” Iruma says, leaping to her feet. “I’d be perfect to watch a bunch of guys bone—”

“Bond,” Kiibo says.

“—with each other! I could watch them all day!”

“Okay!” Angie says clasping her hands. “But make sure they don’t see you, okay Miu?”

“That sounds like spying to me,” Kaede says. 

“Huh?” Angie says. “Kaede, do you want to go too? Oh, oh, God wants to know if you have any supplies that will make checking up on them easier.”

Kaede works her jaw for a second, trying to process how to respond. “Uh, I,” she frowns. “I guess I have a hand mirror on me? Maybe you could use that to see around corners?”

“Mirror, pfft,” Iruma says. “How ‘bout a camera?”

“God says that sounds perfect, Kaede!” Angie says. “Okay, Angie will leave it to you and Miu then!”

“Wait,” Kaede says. “What exactly are we even supposed to be do—”

Iruma leaps to her feet. “Come on, Bakamatsu! You better not let those whale tits of yours slow me down!”

“Hey, wait—” Kaede manages to get out before Iruma physically drags her out of the cafeteria, giggling to herself excitedly. “Iruma-san!” she calls again once they make it to the hallway. “Stop—we can’t just go spy on people!”

Iruma lets out an aggravated sigh as she turns to face her. “Bakamatsu, do you understand what’s happening? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity—what kinda girl who’s not Chabashitra would pass something like this up!?”

“I’m not sure exactly what you think we’re going to be walking in on,” Kaede says. “I mean, their ‘bonding activity’ is something Kaito made up in like five minutes. And this is _Kaito_ we’re talking about.”

“Exactly,” Iruma says. “And what was space case’s idea for you two to bond? Getting all hot and worked up and sweaty—”

“You mean exercising?” Kaede says.

“God, do I have to spell out everything for you?” Iruma says. “Yeah, and what do a bunch of guys all do after exercising?”

Kaede pauses, genuinely confused for a second. “Stop… exercising?”

Iruma slaps a hand to her forehead. “Showers, Bakamatsu! They’re all gonna get naked and touch each other! Haven’t you ever seen a high school movie?”

Kaede suddenly feels her face turn red. “I-I’ve never watched a movie where that happens!”

“Well, then it’s time for life to imitate art,” Iruma says before cackling. “And this better be a fucking masterpiece.”

Iruma begins to strut down the hall, and Kaede hurries to keep pace with her. “Okay, even if that is the case—which it’s not—then that would be a huge breach of their privacy. It’s unethical.”

Iruma throws her hands in the air. “Listen, tits, if you wanna be a goody-two-shoes, then you can fuck off. I’ll tell Sunday school we saw all their secret plans and blah blah blah.”

“I—” Kaede starts to say. “You shouldn’t go either! Come on, how would you feel if they wanted to spy on us?”

Iruma pauses. Then, a blush begins to rise over her cheeks and Kaede realizes her mistake. “That’d be pretty fucking hot.”

Their progress towards the second floor is exceedingly slow as Kaede tries to talk Iruma down with each argument that comes to her. It’s only when they reach the rather spacious floor that the two girls realize they really have no idea where Momota actually took the others. Kaede is thankful for the distraction, though none of her protests seem to hinder Iruma’s focus on her mission.

It’s only after barely escaping Gonta’s thoroughly infested lab that they spy Shirogane walking their way, her usual jacket tied around her waist and her hair gather up in a ponytail. “Oh,” she says. “Akamatsu-san, Iruma-san, what are you doing here?”

Kaede freezes for a second, feeling as if she was actually caught in the act Iruma was pressing her to do. “We were just, uh—”

“Looking pretty sweaty there, Shittygane,” Iruma cackles. “Take all four of them at once?”

Shirogane frowns. “No, we were only playing tennis in Hoshi-kun’s lab. I’m not the protagonist of some adult harem series or anything like that.”

Iruma opens her mouth again, and Kaede jumps to speak before she can get another word in. “So did you just finish? Where are the guys?”

“They wanted to play one more round,” she says. “Hoshi-kun was sitting out to judge since there were five of us, but Momota-kun insisted he play against him once, and Gonta really wanted him to do it too, so I volunteered to sit out. And I was getting pretty tired anyway. But,” she casts a wary eye back the way she came. “I think they probably would have finished by now. I wonder if they decided to use the shower room up there, after all.”

Iruma starts salivating. “Sh-Shower room?”

“They were talking about it earlier,” Shirogane says. “It plainly seemed a little silly to me since they all have showers in their rooms, but I guess since I left early maybe they’d feel a little less awkward about using it.”

Iruma spins on her heel to face Kaede, clasping her hands. “Bakamatsu, this is a one time chance. Boys. Shower room.”

“Oh,” Shirogane says, pulling a face. “Are you guys… going to go, you know,” she shifts awkwardly. “I mean, I know it’s a staple of most high school anime, but I don’t know if any of the guys here are really the fan service type.”

Kaede gives her a dubious look. “That’s what you’re concerned about?”

“Hey, Shittygane,” Iruma says. “What about you? You wanna graduate up to some 3D action?”

“Iruma-san!” Kaede chastises. 

“Me?” Shirogane says. “I-I’m not sure, though…” she pauses. “I guess I am plain enough that they might not notice me, and I could always say I just forgot something.”

“Shirogane-san, not you, too,” Kaede says.

Iruma grins. “Then it’s settled. Right, Bakamatsu, you can find your own alone time material.”

The two begin to head off leaving Kaede behind before she feels physically compelled to run after them. “Wait—come on guys! You can’t actually be serious about doing this!”

“Bakamatsu, I have never been more serious about anything in my fucking life,” Iruma says. “And also if you don’t pipe down you’re gonna get us all caught.”

“Oh, that might be bad,” Shirogane says. “Okay. I’ll be as quiet as possible then.”

Kaede just groans, and Iruma shushes her again.

When they reach the door to Hoshi’s talent lab, Shirogane pulls it open by fractions to reveal the room inside completely empty. At that, Kaede lets out a sigh of relief. “Well, looks like it’s no good. Guess we should just—”

“No, shut the fuck up,” Iruma says, pointing across the room.

Kaede looks to the directed area and sees the door to the shower room in the back slightly ajar with the slightest tendrils of steam seeping out of it. She feels her face flare in warmth even as she hisses whispered warnings to Shirogane and Iruma already quietly moving towards the door. Kaede, beleaguered, follows after them, half wandering why she hasn’t already turned tail and run when Iruma holds out a hand to her. “Bakamatsu,” she whispers. “Mirror.”

Kaede pauses in confusion for a second before almost automatically retrieving the hand mirror from her backpack. Iruma takes it gingerly, and carefully positions it just around the edge of the door before gesturing for her and Shirogane to come look. Kaede takes a deep breath and peers down at the reflected image.

She barely represses her sigh of relief when she sees all of the boys are almost completely fully clothed. Iruma mutters darkly under her breath, and Kaede hears Shirogane softly say, “oh, I guess we took too long…”

Kaede takes a moment to tune into to hear their conversations drift through the door. Hoshi’s only missing his coat and his beanie as he gathers used towels together into a reasonably neat heap while Gonta pulls on his button up. Kaede has to stifle a laugh at the sight of his long tangled hair done up in a towel and piled on top of his head. Hoshi seems to find it amusing, too, as he stops his work to say, “that’s a good look.”

Gonta smiles brightly back at him. “Thank you! Gonta’s hair is pretty messy, but Gonta would like to keep it clean like a gentleman would.”

“Dude,” Momota says, causing Kaede to direct her attention to him. He’s still shirtless with only a towel hanging around his neck, though from Iruma’s grumbling Kaede takes that that’s not what the other girl was hoping for. What interests Kaede more is that he’s near one of the sinks, comb in one hand while the other pushes back what looks like an especially knotted clump of hair on the back of Ouma’s head. “Whatever the hell you do—roll around in dirt, keep an ant colony in it, whatever—your hair has to be cleaner than Ouma’s.”

“Rude,” Ouma huffs, crossing his arms. Despite his usual small form, he seems somehow even thinner without his scarf warped around his neck, even though it appears to be the only piece of clothing he’s missing. “As if Momota-chan’s hair isn’t super gross from all that nasty dried gel.”

“I use actual hair products not,” Momota waves the comb dramatically. “Whatever shit this is! Is your pillow made of fucking chewed gum or something?”

“Well, now that I think about—hey!” Ouma yelps when Momota makes what looks like a particularly hard yank with the comb. “You’re hurting me! Gonta, save me! Momota-chan’s trying to torture me!”

Gonta seems surprisingly unfazed by his crying. “But didn’t Ouma-kun ask Momota-kun to help him?”

“Not with my hair,” Ouma rolls his eyes. “I don’t need your—Momota-chan, stop pulling!”

“I’d pull less if you’d quit squirming around,” Momota says. 

“You know,” Hoshi says. “If it’s that bad, you could just cut it off.”

That makes Ouma burst into tears. “No! Momota-chan! If you cut off my hair, I’ll never forgive you! I’ll sic my entire organization on you, and then when you become a ghost, I’ll—”

“Calm down,” Momota says. “I wouldn’t cut another man’s hair without his permission.”

“Huh?” Gonta says. “Really? Is a man’s hair special?”

“Hell yeah it is,” Momota beams. “It’s part of his sense of style—it’s who he is and how he presents himself to the world. You don’t just go changing that shit without asking a guy.”

“Or you join a sports team and cut it off for regulations,” Hoshi says dully.

Momota sighs. “Come on man, you know it’s more complicated than that. After all, you dye yours, so you’d know.”

“Hoshi-kun dyes his hair?” Gonta asks.

At that, Hoshi seems slightly embarrassed. “Well, I’m not planning to do it again.”

“You should, man,” Momota says. “It’s a good look for you.”

“Gonta also thinks so,” Gonta says. “Maybe Gonta should try dyeing his hair, too.”

Hoshi smiles. “That might be interesting. Not sure if we have the supplies here for it, though.”

“Then Gonta will do it when we escape,” he says brightly.

“Yeah,” Hoshi says. “That… that could be nice.”

“Wow,” Ouma says. “Are you guys seriously taking style tips from _Momota-chan_? Have you seen the way he dresses?”

Momota balks. “What’s wrong with the way I dress? It makes me look cool!”

“Momota-chan, you don’t just look like a circus clown,” Ouma says. “You look like a blind circus clown with a fetish for the color purple got dressed in the dark two days ago and then rolled out of bed after letting a bunch of beauty school dropouts attack their hair with spray paint.”

“That’s it,” Momota says. “I’m cutting off all your hair.”

“Nooooo!” Ouma whines.

Kaede smiles at their conversation as Iruma finally removes the mirror, still scowling deeply. “Fucking waste of time,” she mumbles darkly as she stalks back out of the room. 

Shirogane looks after her and then to Kaede for silent confirmation. Kaede tilts her head in Iruma’s direction and they quietly follow her out. “Well,” Shirogane says once they exit Hoshi’s lab. “That wasn’t really what I was expecting.”

“Just how much does this goddamn school wanna blue ball me,” Iruma says.

Then a voice asks, “What are you doing?” and Kaede spins on her heel to see Maki staring them down suspiciously.

“Nothing!” Iruma shouts, throwing her hands in the air. “Abso-fucking-lutely nothing! Ugh!”

With that she stomps away without another word of explanation. They watch her leave, and Kaede clears her throat. “Well, I guess I should go report to Angie-san. This has been… informative.”

“Has it?” Shirogane asks with a tilt of her head as Kaede waves goodbye to her and thoroughly confused Maki. 

-

_Milk Puzzle, Chapter Four_

Momota’s standing outside the dorms, sighing loudly with the obvious goal to catch someone’s attention when Kaede makes her way out of her room that morning. “What are you doing?” 

“Just thinking,” he says. “This place has gotten… pretty bleak lately, huh?”

Kaede can’t help but feel a lump form in her throat at his words. “Yeah, I guess it has… but I don’t think there’s much we can do about it. I mean, what do you do when people are grieving and afraid?”

“Yeah,” Momota says. “Still sucks, though. I know it doesn’t help shit, but it’d be nice to do something to get my mind off of everything for a while, you know?”

Kaede nods. “I think Shirogane-san was saying something like that earlier. I know she was also looking for people to cosplay with, too, so maybe—” he gives her a withering look and Kaede can’t help but smile teasingly as she continues “—you should hit her up.”

“Pass.”

Kaede laughs. “I figured—cosplay is kinda specific to cosplayers. So what do astronauts do when they’re bored?”

“Train,” he answers. “But… not sure if that’s gonna happen right now. Chabashira’d kill me if she caught me trying to do any exercise.”

“You’re not wrong about that,” she says. “I guess that kind of leaves you out of luck, huh?”

“Well, no,” Momota says, suddenly seeming thoughtful. “Being an astronaut’s about way more than just being in physical shape. You also gotta train your mind, too, so you can think logically and make quick decisions.”

“That sounds useful,” Kaede agrees.

“Yeah! When I was at this one training camp, they had us do all these logic puzzles and shit,” Momota brightens as he recalls the memory. “And I got to be really good at them. Like, I was by far and away the best at this one thing—it’s called a milk puzzle—where you have blank puzzle pieces and have to fit them together.”

“Oh,” Kaede says. “I actually think I found something like that the other day. Do you wanna try it later?”

Momota grins, pressing his fists together. “Hell yeah. I’m gonna show you the ropes, but I’m also not gonna go easy on you just ‘cause you’re my partner.”

“Is putting together a puzzle a competition?” Kaede asks before the two head up to breakfast.

Their conversation through the meal appears to have caught a few ears, and when the two wander back outside to set up under the arbor, Kaede’s only barely emptied the box onto the table when Ouma seems to appear out of nowhere.

“So Akamatsu-chan and Momota-chan were planning a secret date!” he gasps. “And you didn’t invite me!”

Momota groans. “Knock it off with that crap. You’re starting to sound like Shirogane.”

“What? Are you saying I’m boring now? B-But Momota-chan,” he begins to sniffle.

“Don’t say that about her,” Kaede scolds. “Shirogane-san is nice.”

Momota snorts. “She’d be even nicer if she’d quit trying to get me to date someone.”

“Yeah!” Ouma agrees. “How dare she play matchmaker when Momota-chan’s already—”

“I don’t know what you’re going to say, and I don’t want to know,” Momota says. “Now, Kaede are you almost done setting up or not?”

“I think so?” Kaede says staring down slightly confused at the vast array of blank pieces before her. “I’m not sure if they’re the right side up or not, though I guess that’s kind of the point.”

Ouma’s eyes gleam as he looks over the table. “Oh, wow you’re actually doing something not boring. Good for you!”

Momota rolls his eyes. “Glad to fucking know you approve.”

“Of course you are!” Ouma says. “After all, Momota-chan cares about what everyone thinks about him, huh? Because if everyone wasn’t telling you how great you are, then—”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “If you want to play, too, you can. You don’t have to be obnoxious about it.”

“I don’t think that’s possible for him,” Momota says. 

“It really isn’t,” Ouma agrees.

Kaede sighs. “We’re doing this to have fun, okay? So can we please just… not be at each other’s throats?”

“I can,” Momota says. “But I’m not so sure about him.”

“Hey, Momota-chan, no fair!” Ouma says. “That’s what I was going to say! Take it back!”

“Take what back?”

“You don’t even know what I’m talking about? Geeze, how much of an idiot are you?”

“Quit calling me a fucking idiot!”

“I didn’t call you a _fucking_ idiot. Just the regular kind!”

“Fuck you!”

“Momota-chan’s cursing at me!”

“ _Guys,_ ” Kaede says. 

Momota throws his hands in the air. “It’s not me! He’s the one doing it!”

Kaede just runs a hand over her face. “You know what? Maybe we should just do this later. I think I need a nap—my head hurts all of a sudden.”

“Aw, Momota-chan, look what you did to poor Akamatsu-chan,” Ouma says. 

“Okay, did you only follow us here so you could be an asshole?”

Kaede hears their bickering follow her as she makes her way to her room. It’s only a few hours later when she finally feels the energy to attempt to make her way back out again. Outside is distinctly quiet, and both Momota and Ouma seem to have taken off to their own devices at some point while she was gone.

She takes about one step towards the arbor when she notices an unexpected figure sitting at the table, hunched over the puzzle nearly completed. Kaede takes care to be as silent as possible as she creeps another step closer to examine Maki, sitting calmly with her brow furrowed in concentration, one snow white piece held aloft in her hand.

Kaede watches for another moment and sees Maki slowly reach down to click the piece into place, a slight smile of satisfaction curling over her normally cold features. From this distance, she looks almost normal, as if she could be just a regular teenager.

But Kaede knows the longer she stays to watch, the more likely she is to get caught and scurries away towards the school. 

Later, when she returns for the evening, she sees Momota standing over the completed puzzle looking at it curiously. As Kaede walks over to him, he looks up at her, and says, “Hey, Kaede, did you come back and finish the puzzle all by yourself? That’s pretty impressive for a beginner.”

“It wasn’t me,” Kaede says. “I actually saw Harukawa-san doing it.”

“Really?” he says, eyebrows shooting up towards his hairline. “Huh, I had no idea Harumaki was into this kind of thing.”

Kaede looks over the smooth surface of the puzzle finished seemingly just for the fun of it. “I didn’t either…” She shakes her head. “Still, I wonder why she didn’t tell you at least.”

Momota’s grinning broadly. “She was probably embarrassed. You know how some people try and act all mature? Harumaki’s kinda like that, but I know she just wants to goof off like anyone else from time to time.”

“I’m kinda having a hard time imaging Harukawa-san ‘goofing off,’” Kaede says.

“But didn’t you say you saw her?” Momota asks.

“Well, yeah, but,” Kaede tugs at her hat. “I don’t think that’s quite the same thing.”

Momota studies Kaede briefly before he goes back to smiling. “Anyway, now I definitely know what I’m gonna do. Kaede—if you find any other puzzles, bring them to me. I wanna surprise Harumaki.”

“I think if you do that she’s just gonna ask if you want to die.”

He laughs. “Maybe, but then I could teach her about logic puzzles, and oh—I think I actually picked up a book of them a while ago! Well I know how I’m spending my night! Bye, Kaede!”

Despite her hesitations, Kaede can only smile as he hurries off with a slight skip in his step. “Try not to stay up too late!”

“Yeah, sure, mom!”

-

_Bunny Apples, Chapter Four_

Tenko doesn’t show up to dinner that night. Everyone else is assembled in the dining hall, and though Kaede doubts Tenko is in any danger, she can’t help the budding worry starting to rise in her chest.

“Akamatsu,” Hoshi says, voice soft enough that only she can hear. “Chabashira’s not coming is she?”

Kaede shakes her head. “No.”

He nods, and Kaede assumes the brief conversation ends there until a few minutes later, he says, “Any idea where she might be?”

“I think she said she was going to her lab,” Kaede says. “That… neo-aikido could help her with,” she sighs, “everything, I guess.”

“Right,” Hoshi says. He shifts slightly to glance at the dining hall clock, muttering under his breath, “almost nighttime. She should show up soon if she wants anything.”

Kaede can’t help but wince. “I don’t think she’s going to come. Being here is hard for her after… what happened.”

Hoshi turns back to the stare down at the table. “Yeah. Yeah, I get that.”

He doesn’t try and speak to her again until they finish eating and Monokuma arrives to remind them to get the hell out of the dining hall for nighttime. Hoshi only catches her attention again when they exit, starting to drift slowly back to the dorms. “Hey, Akamatsu, you…” he shifts slightly to pull an orange out of his pocket. “Grabbed this before we left. You think Chabashira’d take it?”

“She might,” Kaede says. “Are you going to bring it to her? That’s really nice of you, Hoshi-kun.”

“Well,” he says. “It’ll be if she accepts it. Don’t… really know her that well. Mostly just know how she feels about guys.”

“There’s more to her than that,” Kaede says. “But, well, I guess she can be a bit abrasive towards boys sometimes.”

Hoshi looks dubious at her word choice but opts to only ask, “how do you think she’d take a guy showing concern for her?”

“Probably not very well,” Kaede says. “If you want, I could come with you. I think I actually picked up some stuff earlier that might be good for a light snack at least.”

“Then you should go alone,” he holds the orange out to her. “Here.”

Kaede shakes her head. “I don’t think so, Hoshi-kun. It was your idea, so you should come too.”

“That’s probably not a great—”

“Hoshi-kun,” Kaede says sternly. “I know it’s been a while, but I’m pulling my ‘I’m the leader’ card.”

Hoshi just shakes his head with a small smile, not upset with her demands in the slightest. “Guess I don’t have a choice then.”

Hoshi isn’t much one for conversation, and they say little on their way there. At their arrival, Kaede notices Tenko sitting out on the front steps of her dojo, fiddling with something in her hands. 

“Tenko-san,” she says. “We brought you something to eat.”

Tenko jerks at their words, quickly shuffling whatever she was messing with closer to herself. “O-Oh, Tenko missed dinner, didn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Kaede says, finding it difficult to keep her voice cheerful. “Hoshi-kun wanted to bring you something. I have…” she shifts to rifle through her backpack to draw out a fully sliced apple. “These, and Hoshi-kun also grabbed an orange.”

“Not a balanced meal,” Hoshi says. “Sorry. Should have thought about it earlier.”

“No, that’s fine,” Tenko says. “Tenko isn’t very hungry right now anyway.”

Kaede frowns. “But weren’t you just exercising?”

“Actually, Tenko, um,” she looks down to the objects in her hands, which Kaede now recognizes as playing cards. “She was looking through her room and… found these.”

“Oh, those are from—” Kaede cuts herself off before she can repeat the memory of Tenko applauding each and everyone of Yumeno’s tricks. 

Hoshi glances between them, seeming to gauge the situation from their few words. “Not sure if I know many tricks, but have learned enough card games in my time.”

“Hoshi-kun, you sound like an old man,” Kaede says.

He shrugs as he takes a tentative seat a respectable distance away from Tenko. “Maybe. They were useful in prison to kill time, at least.”

For some reason, that makes Kaede flinch. With all the time she’s spent with Hoshi, that fact managed to somehow slip her mind. “Er, right, I guess they would.”

“Tenko…” Tenko says, voice faltering slightly. “Tenko knows… ten-two-jack. She would play it with her master sometimes.”

Hoshi nods. “That one’s alright. Most of the guys I knew it prison were more into poker or anything else you could bet on.”

“Isn’t that gambling?” Kaede asks.

“You don’t have to,” Hoshi says. “Never was really interested in playing for cigarettes, but,” he hesitates for a second before saying, “did get pretty good at counting cards.”

“‘Counting cards?’” Tenko asks. 

Hoshi hesitates for another moment before sighing. “Don’t ever let anyone catch you doing this, but there’s this game called blackjack…”

After a few minutes of listening to Hoshi explaining the rules and subsequent strategy, Tenko shifted to collect the cards in her lap before extending them to Hoshi. “Here… Tenko thinks it might be easier with a demonstration.”

Very carefully, Hoshi takes them from her, treating them as if they were precious. “Thanks… I’ll give them right back, Chabashira.”

“No, um,” Tenko shakes her head. “Tenko thinks… maybe we should play. If Kaede-san wants to, that is.”

Kaede hurries to sit down on Tenko’s other side. “I would be happy to. Although, I can’t even really shuffle,” she says with a slight laugh.

Hoshi smiles. “Could probably teach you that, too, if you want.”

“Tenko thinks she can do that,” she says softly. “When Tenko was little, she wanted to do magic tricks, but she’d always get too frustrated and just throw the cards on the ground, and then master would make her pick them up, but,” she draws her knees up to her chest. “Then they’d always play a game with her, anyway, even if Tenko made them mad.”

“Your master sounds like a good person,” Hoshi says. Then he smile turns just a bit playful. “When you get out of here, don’t tell them I taught you how to count cards, alright?”

“Tenko wouldn’t tell them about any awful trick any awful boy taught her,” she says, though her words lack any venom. Instead, they seem the closest to happy Kaede thinks she’s heard her all night. 

“I won’t tell anyone either,” Kaede says. “Though I do think we should play for money.”

Tenko whirls around to face her while even Hoshi seems slightly surprised. “Kaede-san!? Gambling is illegal!”

“Well, yeah,” she says. “But I just have all these extra monocoins lying around, so…”

“Huh,” Hoshi says with a quiet laugh. “Guess you learn something new about people everyday.”

“Tenko never thought that Kaede-san would have a gambling problem,” Tenko says.

“G-Guys!” Kaede protests. “It’s not like that! I promise!”

The teasing subsides when Hoshi takes her money one too many times before Kaede begins to suspect he’s throwing games on purpose. She’d grumble a bit more about the sudden lightness in her pockets if it wasn’t for the simplistic but still real happiness lighting up in Tenko’s eyes whenever she’d win a hand, no matter how obviously Hoshi was trying to lose.

After a few too many rounds, Kaede grumbles, “can we maybe play that game Tenko-san was talking about instead? Or maybe something for kids?”

“Sure,” Hoshi says. “If you can win this next hand.”

“You can do it, Kaede-san,” Tenko says. “Tenko believes in you.”

Kaede can only hang her head mumbling, “I don’t believe in me…”

Hoshi laughs just a little again but takes mercy on her enough to switch to something Tenko eagerly explains that her master told her there were no winners or losers in.

-

_Home Planet, Chapter Five_

“Goodnight, Akamatsu-chan!” Ouma says, his voice reverberating slightly off the hanger’s walls. “If you snore, I’ll kill you in your sleep.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Kaede says, shifting to attempt to find a comfortable position in the Exisal’s cockpit. Her arm brushes awkwardly against the seat’s meager padding, and Kaede hisses at the contact. “Ugh, do you think we’re actually gonna get any sleep in here?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Akamatsu-chan, I’m already asleep,” Ouma says dully from his sleeping bag.

“Ouma-kun, this is miserable,” Kaede says.

He huffs as he rolls over to face her. “If you hate it so much, then you are more than welcome to go back to your room, princess. You can sleep on your silk sheets and your feather pillows and dream about kissing boys and—”

“You’re miserable, too,” Kaede says.

“No, I’m not,” Ouma says. “I’m having the time of my life having a sleep over with my very favorite Akamatsu-chan. Hey, do you want to stay up and braid each other’s hair and tell secrets and talk about boys?”

Kaede rolls her eyes. “I know you’re trying to make fun of me, but I don’t think it would hurt to actually do some of those things.”

“Akamatsu-chan wants to braid my hair,” he says, batting his eyelashes at her.

“No, but maybe we should share some secrets and talk about boys, or at least,” she shifts around to grab her backpack and pulls a familiar looking, small circular mechanical device. “One boy.”

Ouma sits up. “Huh? Is that like a lamer version of Iruma-chan’s star projector thing?”

Kaede sighs as she stands from the Exisal. “I know you know that whole thing was Kaito’s idea. Hey, is there a place where I can plug this in?”

Ouma just shrugs. “It’s a mystery.”

Ouma remains little help, opting to simply snipe at her from his spot on the floor until Kaede finally finds a close enough outlet to allow her to place the home planet roughly in the center of the room where Ouma established his camp. “There we go,” she says, finally flicking it on.

The display is not nearly as impressive as the one Iruma had enhanced for them so long ago, but Kaede is still content with her work as she takes a seat next to a now strangely quiet Ouma. “It’s not quite the same without the music and Kaito lecturing us, but, still,” she leans forward resting her head on her knees. “This is nice.”

Ouma just rolls over away from her. “Man, Akamatsu-chan is such a loser. _And_ she’s gonna keep me up all night with her stupid nightlight.”

“I’ll turn it off after a minute, okay?” Kaede says. “I just want to do something instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself.” She looks over his small form bundled under the sleeping bag. “Especially since it seems like you’re doing more than enough of that for the both of us.”

“Akamatsu-chan, did you just come here to bully me?” he asks.

“So you admit you’re just wallowing in—”

“Blah, blah, blah! Akamatsu-chan, I can’t hear you over the sound of your dumb light show!” 

Kaede looks towards the notably silent planetary system. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. Just let me have this for a little while.” 

Ouma stays quiet, though Kaede hears the sounds of him sitting up after a while. She lets a few more moments of silence pass before she says softly, “I think that’s the, um, something nebula. I remember Kaito got really excited about it.”

“He got excited about every dumb star this thing has,” Ouma says. 

“Yeah, maybe,” she says. “Did he ever tell you the reason why he got Iruma-san to make a big one in the first place? Apparently he used to have one of these when he was a kid and he wanted to share that with us.”

“Is that story supposed to make me feel anything?” Ouma says. “Or did you just tell it to bore me?”

Kaede shrugs. “I just thought it was interesting. But if you felt something, good for you.”

Ouma goes quiet again, and Kaede takes a second to summon all the patience she knows she’ll need for this conversation as she turns back to look at him. “You know Kaito’s not the mastermind, right? I know you said you don’t trust anyone, but that can’t actually be true.”

Ouma smirks at her. “Akamatsu-chan, I’m the only one allowed to say ‘that was a lie.’ You don’t get to do it for me.”

Kaede raises an eyebrow. “You keep dodging all my questions.”

“You keep not accepting my answers.”

Kaede pinches the bridge of her nose. “God, how does Kaito have actual conversations with you?”

“Who knows?” Ouma says. “Momota-chan’s just too much of a stubborn idiot to give up, I guess.”

“You really should stop calling him an idiot,” Kaede says automatically. Then something in his words clicks in her brain and she adds, “especially since he hasn’t given up on you.”

Ouma smiles again. “I don’t get you. I told you over and over that I don’t care that everyone hates me, but you keep bringing it up. You know, I’m starting to think you actually are trying to bully me.”

“I didn’t say that,” Kaede says. “Since the point I’m trying to make is that someone _doesn’t_ hate you. And I don’t get why you want them to so badly.”

Ouma groans. “I already explained this! Geeze, Akamatsu-chan! Everyone could be the mastermind, so only an idiot would bother with trying to buddy up to anyone.”

“I just don’t think I can understand that,” Kaede frowns. “I mean, I think I’d rather risk someone betraying me than being too scared to even try and make friends.”

“I seriously doubt I signed up for this killing game to make friends,” Ouma says.

“I told you to quit joking about that,” Kaede snaps.

“Whatever.” Ouma flops on to his back with a huff. “And, Akamatsu-chan, you know I don’t _care_ about making friends.”

Kaede looks over her shoulder at his prone form. “What, are you gonna say something edgy like ‘I don’t have friends.’”

“Well, I don’t,” he says. “Unless super sweet ingénue Akamatsu-chan wants to be poor little old me’s friend.”

“I wasn’t talking about me,” Kaede says. “And I know you’re just gonna try and weasel out of it, but you do know Kaito is your friend. Or at least he would be if you’d let him.”

Ouma snorts. “Please. If you’re lying to try and make me feel better, you should know it’s not working.”

“Ouma-kun,” Kaede says. “I promise I would never try to bother with comforting you.”

He beams up at her. “Likewise.”

Their conversation seems to end comfortably there, but the conversation Kaede had with Momota back in his lab burns just a bit too much in the back of her mind. “Well, whatever you decide, you should give Kaito a break sometimes. I don’t know why, but he really does think you’re a good person.”

“Oh, like way, way, way past a few levels of hell deep down kind of thing?” Ouma says nonchalantly.

“No,” Kaede says. “Just… the way you are. You could try harder to be decent, but, I mean, everyone should do that.”

Ouma doesn’t respond, and it’s only when Kaede hears him shifting with his blankets to try and get into a sleeping position does he speak again. “If Momota-chan comes by, tell him he’s an idiot.”

Kaede clicks off the home planet, leaving them in darkness save the few ambient lights. “You know that hurts his feelings.”

“Tell him he smells.”

Kaede smirks at him as she rolls her eyes. “Tell him yourself.”

“Akamatsu-chan, you smell and you’re an idiot,” he says without moving an inch from his spot.

“Goodnight, Ouma-kun.”

-

_Elsewhere_

The footage runs in tiny, fragmented streams before the Mother Monokuma. “Hundreds of thousand of nanokumas,” it muses. “And so much _crap!_ ”

With that, the images of the everyday and the mundane flicker out of existence, the Mother Monokuma chanting, “garbage, garbage, flaming garbage, garbage. Alright, note to all nanokumas, if it’s boring as shit, then don’t send it back here! Man, do we need another editor.”

“So,” Shirogane says, the scenes quickly disappearing in the reflection of her glasses. “None of these are making it to air?”

“God, no. Are you kidding?” it says. “We’re in the entertainment business! What part of this is entertaining to you?”

She pauses. Then, “whatever you think is best.”

“Whatever I know is best,” the Mother Monokuma huffs. “And trust me when I say no one wants to watch this.”

Shirogane doesn’t say anything else. The Mother Monokuma deletes the footage without a word of protest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is a semi-comprehensive list of some of the amazing things I've seen people make for this fic! If you made something and it's not on here, please let me know, and I would be delighted to add it! Also conversely, if you want your piece taken down, also just let me know!
> 
> https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/IdTradeMyLifeForYours A TV Tropes page with a very nice edit! Thank you to everyone who has contributed to it!
> 
> http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/168426349832/imgur-mirror-here-w-full-resolution-images This wonderful comic of the first execution by empwnleon on tumblr who has done much great fan art for this fic!
> 
> They’ve also done:
> 
> http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/166802034517/apparently-its-saiede-week-not-sure-if-i-can Kaede and Saihara which I think was also done for saiede week!
> 
> http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/172575508317/chapter-4-trial-of-id-trade-my-life-for-yours Chapter 4 fan art!
> 
> http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/170021002807/hoo-boy-how-about-that-new-ill-trade-my-life-for Chapter 5 fan art!
> 
> http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/174346434457/kaede-and-kokichi-when-they-exchanged-notes This great comic between Kaede and Ouma!
> 
> http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/173615246882/kaede-its-all-my-faulthe-died-because-of-me This great comic of Kaede and Ouma, too!
> 
> http://empwnleon.tumblr.com/post/175867522847/have-you-read-the-newest-chapter-of-id-trade-my And art for this chapter, too!
> 
> If I missed any of your works, I am so sorry and I will add them as soon as possible!
> 
> And also!
> 
> https://iamclearlyyouroverlord.tumblr.com/post/163378709694/some-scruffy-fanart-for-the-fic-id-trade-my-life Ouma and Kaede from chapter 3 by iamclearlyyouroverlord (which is a great name, btw) on tumblr!
> 
> https://www.deviantart.com/majora8j/art/I-d-Trade-My-Life-For-Yours-Draft-712744129 Also Kaede and Ouma from chapter 3 (I guess people liked that scene, haha) by Majora8J on deviantart!
> 
> http://yabashiri.tumblr.com/post/167100397504/id-trade-my-life-for-yours-ch26-this-fic-is Kaede from chapter 4 by yabashiri on tumblr!
> 
> https://albaharu.tumblr.com/post/167421757614/im-reading-this-drv3-fic-by-grayimperia-that-i-s Tenko and Kaede from chapter 1 by albaharu on tumblr!
> 
> https://twitter.com/lou_quorice/status/929793168626741249 Chapter 1 fan art by lou_quorice on twitter!
> 
> https://tryingtowhisper.tumblr.com/post/170881693123/heres-a-request-i-did-for-princeasimdiya12 Kaede and Momota from chapter 5 by tryingtowhipser on tumblr!
> 
> https://dailysaimatsu.tumblr.com/post/172419957573/have-you-ever-read-id-trade-my-life-for-yours Kaede and Saihara from chapter 1 from the dailysaimatsu on tumblr!
> 
> http://shsl-shipper-gamer-fangirl.tumblr.com/post/171198029394/can-i-get-kaedekaitotenko-angst-au-where A fic of a potential ending by shsl-shipper-gamer-fangirl on tumblr! 
> 
> http://millimole.tumblr.com/post/175842244069/yo-i-hardly-ever-read-fics-but-id-trade-my-life A series of very cute drawings from chapter 2 to chapter 4 by millimole on tumblr!
> 
> https://twitter.com/oumatxt/status/1016734152287227905 A certain Ouma related event from last chapter by oumaxt on twitter!
> 
> https://twitter.com/oumatxt/status/1013982885710319616 And lastly, a meme lovingly crafted in ten minutes by oumatxt on twitter! 
> 
> And also, of course, I want to thank all the people who have been commenting and kudoing this fic. I know I have absolutely gotten this far due to your support and I cannot thank you enough!


	37. Daily Life XIV

_Theater_

_…_

_I woke up in a locker. There’s some things I’m really into, but I’m no one special. There was a noise from the other locker. There were sixteen of us in the gym. The boy who told me his name said so. Another boy fell out of the locker._

_My name is Akamatsu Kaede. I’m the protagonist. I’m the protagonist. There were monsters in the hallway. I thought about how rotten the word was and then there were monsters._

_I told the boy from the locker to shut up. He asked if it was my fault. I’m the protagonist. The monsters chased us. Some men shoved me into a car. They must have chased the others. The world is rotten._

_The bear said it’s boring to kill normal people. The bear said ‘the domain of the killing game.’ The boy said sixteen was enough. I was happy. Everything was beautiful. Everyone was beautiful.  
…_

_My name is Akamatsu Kaede. I’m_

_I woke up in a locker. My name is Akamatsu Kaede. I’m the Ultimate Pianist. I don’t remember how I got here. I’m the protagonist._

_………_

-

Keade wakes up far before the morning announcement. A few minutes pass before she even bothers to check her monopad to confirm the early time. When she finds the motivation to actually discover it’s only a little past six, all she can do is squeeze her eyes closed for a moment before resigning herself to stare at her ceiling.

The days before had felt like a whirlwind. Everything since Iruma’s death had come as one blow after another. Part of Kaede can’t even process what happened as real yet. Her arm still hurts, her head aches, and her throat is sore from when she had screamed at Momota that he was wrong and she was right.

Kaede barely pays attention to her own movements as her fingers brush slightly against the lingering bruises on her cheek. She’s going to have to talk to Momota later.

The thought doesn’t inspire much action, however, as she lets her hand drop back to her side. She doesn’t know when she would have finally taken the incentive to get up that morning if it weren’t for her doorbell suddenly ringing.

It’s enough of a surprise that Kaede jerks to sit up. Her monopad tells her she’s wasted an hour, but there’s still an hour before the morning announcement. Whoever is waiting outside seems patient enough as Kaede hears no other sounds from the door on her cautious trek over to it.

Shirogane’s standing on the other side when she finally opens the door, hands folded politely in front of her and a pleasant enough smile on her face. “Good morning, Akamatsu-san,” she says.

“Um, morning,” Kaede says back, not bothering to hide her confusion. “Did you need something? It’s still really early, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Shirogane says. “And I’d apologize for waking you up, too, but you weren’t sleeping anyway, huh?”

Kaede lets out a sigh. “That obvious?”

Shirogane’s smile is sympathetic as she says, “it’s okay. I’d have thought anyone would have trouble sleeping after that trial. Though we’re the only two up right now, so I guess maybe the exhaustion put everyone to sleep.”

Kaede nods, following her logic until something strikes her as slightly odd. “Wait. Did you already go check on the others?”

“Oh, I didn’t personally,” Shirogane says. “Monokuma just told me. He also told me you were awake, so it seemed like the perfect time for us to have a chat.”

Any lingering feelings of sleepiness evaporate in an instant as Kaede stares at her wide eyed. “Wha—”

“Well,” Shirogane says. “Really the nanokumas—those tiny camera things Hoshi-kun told everyone about—they told the Mother Monokuma, which then told Monokuma, who then told me.” She shakes her head with a laugh. “Not the best system, I know, but sometimes you just have to make do.”

Kaede still has very little idea how to process what’s happening right in front of her, only managing to stammer, “Y-You’re just—”

“Admitting it? Kinda,” she says. “Anyway, can I come in? Everyone is still asleep, but it’d be a little unfortunate if we had to cut off early in case someone woke up.”

At her words, Kaede feels herself go on even higher alert, and she moves to slam the door shut in her face. With her weakened arm, however, she can really only do so much when Shirogane lunges forward almost immediately to catch the door before it closes. Despite Kaede’s continued attempts to slam the other girl’s fingers in the door, Shirogane just laughs. “I thought something like this might happen. Guess I should have led with ‘I literally cannot kill or harm you’ first.”

Kaede doesn’t let up on the door even as she allows herself the curiosity to grit out between her clenched teeth, “What are you talking about?”

“The second kill rule,” Shirogane says. “I’d only get away with doing something if someone else was already dead, and right now that’s not the case.”

Kaede narrows her eyes. “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“Oh, Akamatsu-san, you don’t need to believe in me for this one,” she says. “You know the others—do you really think any of them would murder someone now?”

Kaede keeps her gaze hard, but her grip on the door laxes. “Why are you here?”

“Because I think we should talk,” Shirogane says. “I know you’re suspicious—honestly, I’d be pretty surprised if you weren’t—but, really, this is in both of our best interests.” Kaede remains quiet as she keeps studying her. Shirogane says, “you’re not going to lose anything by hearing what I have to say.”

They wait another moment in tense silent before Kaede finally relents. She steps to the side to allow Shirogane to pass by her, muttering darkly, “you know I’m just going to tell everyone who you are as soon as possible.”

“Actually,” Shirogane says, voice light and almost frustratingly unconcerned. “I think you should put a hold on that until we’re done.”

“A-And why would I do that!?” Kaede snaps. Shirogane moves to sit on her bed, and something about her nonchalance unleashes all of the anger Kaede had been holding against the mastermind. “You—you’re the one who trapped us all here and tortured us into killing each other! You created every horrible execution, and—and you killed Yumeno-san in cold blood!”

Shirogane doesn’t seem offended by the accusations in the slightest. “Right, right.”

“And!” Kaede jabs a finger in her direction. “You’re only here because your plans are falling apart, aren’t you? Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun ruined your game so now you’re just trying to—”

“Oh, that,” Shirogane says with a dismissive hand wave. “I’ll admit parts of that were definitely a headache, and it’s going to be awfully hard to edit around betting on the wrong horse for the Monokuma File. But it’s all taken care of.”

Kaede falters then. “What? How could you ‘take care of’ something like that?”

“I already said it,” Shirogane says. “The magic of editing. With all the nanokumas, editing is always a must. It’s just a little bit more of a must this time.”

“And you’re going to do that to please whatever disgusting audience you have?” Kaede spits. “Is that it? Well what about the rest of the trial? How are you going to just explain that to them?”

“Well, first there’s enough extra footage from the trial to cobble something together,” Shirogane says. “And Ouma-kun thought he was pretty clever with his little hiding in the Exisal trick, but he should have realized that I already have the ability to mimic his voice with one of the voice changers. And then just filming a blank Exisal with new audio over it is by far one of the easiest fixes to make.”

Something about that disturbs Kaede in a way she can’t quite articulate. The question that comes to her isn’t the exact one she feels she should be asking, but it comes out with an accompanying look of horror anyway. “So after everything you’ve put us through… you’re just going to lie about it?”

Shirogane blinks at her, more confused at her reaction than anything else. “Yeah, basically.” When Kaede just keeps staring at her, she shakes her head. “I’m not going to give away everything about who’s watching us, but, Akamatsu-san, you know as well as I do that most people don’t really care about logic, right?”

“No?” Kaede says.

“Most people,” Shirogane continues as if she hadn’t spoken at all. “Just want to be surprised. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense or if it’s all a lie."

“What part of this,” Kaede says, “is supposed to make me not out you the first chance I get?”

“Ah,” Shirogane says. “I guess I should move onto that.” She sighs, almost seeming relaxed as she rests her chin on the palm of her hand. “You know, Akamatsu-san, I really wasn’t too happy at first when the nanokumas saw your little conversation with Kiibo-kun, but now I think I’ve come around on it. I’m glad you know.”

“Why?” Kaede says. “So you can come here and show me how awful you are in person?”

She shakes her head with a laugh. “Maybe from your point of view, I suppose. I just like that we can talk openly. No lies.” Kaede narrows her eyes dangerously, and Shirogane just smiles again. “I do mean that,” she adds. “And I also really mean that our goals align now.”

Kaede watches her another moment. Then, “how?”

“Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says. “How do you want this game to end? You and everyone else free, right? And me dead?”

“That’s what…” Kaede says slowly. “That’s what you want, too?”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “And I know you must be thinking ‘oh if the mastermind wants that then it must be terrible’ but is it really? You either go free or you die. It’s really not that hard a choice.”

“But you’re choosing death,” Kaede says. “You just said so.”

“Yes,” Shirogane says. “I’m different. I don’t really count as a participant the same way you do. To the people watching, you’re the ‘survivors’ and I’m ‘the mastermind.’ Well, that’s how it will be when that’s revealed.”

Kaede isn’t sure why she looks around as if she expects to see the nanokumas suddenly around her. “This isn’t being shown to anyone?”

“Oh, God no,” Shirogane says. “It’s being recorded, but none of this is making it anywhere. After all, me sitting down and having a civil chat with you kind of ruins the myth of the game.”

“‘The myth of the game?’” Kaede repeats.

“That we’re locked in, like,” she laughs. “Ah, this sounds so silly saying it aloud, but it’s this idea that you’re in this epic battle between hope and despair with me. It’s very important for the audience, trust me.”

“Then I should ruin it,” Kaede says. “I don’t want the sick people watching us to get anything they want.”

“It doesn’t quite work that way, Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says. “Like I said, things can and will be cut. Honestly, I’m also glad the live camera went down, but—” she holds up a hand when Kaede looks like she’s about to question that, “—ignore the audience for now, and just think about the enemy right in front of you.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “So… you?”

“Right again,” Shirogane says. “Because, see, you know all this horrible stuff that I’ve done, right? But what if… oh, what if there were even more just plainly awful things I’ve done that you don’t even know about yet? And if you expose me now, well,” she shrugs, “I don’t think you’ll ever be able to find out what they were.”

Kaede pauses for a moment, eyes wide, before she stammers, “y-you’re bluffing.”

“I’m not,” she says. “Like I said, I’m not here to lie. And I’m not here to stop you from telling anyone about me. I’m just asking you to wait a little longer, find the clues I’ve set up, figure out what you should really be mad at me for, _then_ announce your grand discovery.”

Kaede stays quiet for another moment before she asks, “what other things have you done to us?”

“Things I definitely think you would want to know,” Shirogane replies. “And one or two things very specific to you. Or, well, specific to Saihara-kun, at least.”

“What?” Kaede says before taking an aggressive step towards Shirogane. “What did you do to—you’re lying, aren’t you? This is all a trick to get me to play your fucked up game.”

“It’s not a trick,” Shirogane answers calmly. “Though, yes, I would like you to keep playing the game for just a bit longer.”

“I refuse,” Kaede says.

“Why?” Shirogane asks. “You only have things to gain by doing so. If you play along, you’ll find out the school’s mysteries, condemn me for the right reasons, and then go free with the others while I die. Seems like only positives for you.”

“And if I tell the others, we kill you and end things right now.”

Shirogane smiles almost sadly as she shakes her head. “You’re confusing causation and correlation. I die at the end of the game, yes, but my death doesn’t mean it ends. I’m more replaceable than you think, Akamatsu-san. Everyone here is.”

“We’re replaceable?” Kaede says. “With what? Are there more survivors you can just round up into another killing game?”

“That’s… close enough to the truth for now,” Shirogane says. “And if you want the full details, then you really should accept my offer.”

“But if you’re replaceable,” Kaede says. “Then what happens if you do die? We can’t figure out what’s actually happening anymore?”

“If I die before I reveal myself,” she says. “Then I’ll be treated like any other victim, and whoever kills me will be considered a culprit. And then there will be a trial. It’s funny,” she says, that strange sadness returning to her voice. “Everyone was so determined to find me because they assumed I was so much more important. But I’m still just plain old me.”

Kaede crosses her arms. “If you want me to feel sorry for you—”

“Oh, no, no,” Shirogane says. “I don’t expect anything like that. You’re a nice person, Akamatsu-san, but I’m not expecting mercy from anyone. Especially after you find out all of the things I’ve done.”

“Why do you keep hyping up your secret evil deeds or whatever?” Kaede says. “Are you that proud of how horrible you are?”

“It’s not that,” Shirogane says. “I just really think you should discover it for yourself. It’ll help you… come full circle, I think. And then,” she smirks, “you can finally succeed in killing the mastermind.”

Kaede freezes at that. “I-I haven’t tried to do that for a long time.”

“You haven’t,” Shirogane says. “But you still want to, and that’s all I really want to do, Akamatsu-san. I just want to give you and the audience everything you want.”

“That’s really creepy,” Kaede says. “You’re really creepy.”

“Oh, don’t say it like that,” Shirogane says. “I just have different priorities or values or something, so it’s hard for us to understand each other. But at the end of the day, we both want the hero to win, you know?”

“And I’m the hero?” Kaede asks.

Shirogane’s smile is too fond for Kaede’s comfort. “You are. You almost weren’t, but I am truly happy that that didn’t happen.”

Kaede takes a few steps back when Shirogane stands, suddenly far too close to her. “I don’t want to be the hero—I don’t want to be anything in your sick game.”

“That’s not up to you, Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says. “You never had a choice, but, still,” she takes another step forward, and Kaede steels herself at her approach. “You’ve been so interesting. There were even times when I started to think you out grew your chara—no,” she steps away, and whatever strange energy had been swirling over them suddenly fades to nothing. “Never mind. Anyway, your thoughts on my proposal?”

Kaede pauses for a long moment, trying to take in what just happened between them. “You said there were items to explore left or something,” Kaede says. “When do you give them to us? Are you going to make us wait for another murder?”

“Oh, no, no,” Shirogane says. “There’s doing to be a pretty short exploration since there’s only one more room in the school that’s locked, then Monokuma will give the keycard to the secret room in the library as one more bonus exploration item after we finish. And most of the clues will be in there.”

“And after that?” Kaede says, trying to keep as much authority in her faltering voice as she can.

“When you find everything, the Mother Monokuma will say some things and then Monokuma shows up and we’ll challenge him to one last trial to end the game,” she says. “After that, there’re a few more things you’ll need to find, but you’ll have plenty of time to get them.”

“And after the trial, we get to leave, and you die,” Kaede says. “That’s it?”

Shirogane nods. “That’s it. So,” she holds her hand out to Kaede, “do we have a deal?”

Kaede remains where she is as she says, “if for one second I think you’re lying, I’m telling everyone, and Kiibo-kun can back me up.”

Shirogane’s face falls at the mention of Kiibo’s name. “Oh, right, for this to work you’re going to have to keep him to yourself, you know. Or you could let me take him.”

“I don’t think so.”

Shirogane shrugs. “That’s fine. Just keep him quiet until I give the go ahead, okay?”

Kaede doesn’t say anything more until Shirogane nears the door. Then, “Shirogane-san,” she says. “I still don’t get it. What do you get out of this? You’re going to die.”

“Like I said,” Shirogane says. “We just have different priorities. You want to live, and I want to see this game through to its proper conclusion.”

“And that conclusion is your death?” Kaede asks. “That still doesn’t make sense. Why do you want to die so badly?”

“It’s not that I want to die,” she says. “It’s more like… I want to live out my dream, and that dream just happens to end with my death.”

Kaede just stares at her in horror. “What kind of a dream is that?”

“A dream where I see my friends succeed,” Shirogane says. “I mean, we are friends, and who doesn’t want to see their friends do well? I’m not lying,” the genuineness of her smile makes Kaede’s blood run cold, “it’s the truth.”

“You know I don’t believe that,” Kaede says still manages to say. “And no matter what happens, you know I want you dead.”

“That’s fine,” Shirogane says. “And it doesn’t really matter what happens. I’ll still consider you and everyone else to be some of my closest friends. But I think that’s our different values talking again. Anyway,” she pushes the door open, “I’ll see you later, Akamatsu-san,” and slips through without another word.

The door clicks closed softly, and Kaede summons just enough energy to carry herself back to her bed to collapse back on it. It feels like barely any time passes before the morning announcement plays. Kaede groans and half debates throwing her shoe at it before pulling herself back up to her feet.

She takes a minute to try and pull herself together as much as possible before drifting out of her room. Seeing Shirogane idly talking to Hoshi as the two make their own slow way to the dining hall upsets Kaede far more than it should.

Hoshi greets her with a few words and a comment of “doubt anyone will be in the mood to do much of anything after what just happened.”

It takes Kaede half a second to register he’s talking about the trial rather than her private conversation that he logically should have no knowledge of. “A-Ah, right,” Kaede says.

“I wonder if Momota-kun will come to breakfast,” Shirogane says. “I’d be plainly surprised if he did.”

Shirogane’s completely reverted back to her old demure behavior, and Kaede’s mouth presses into a tight line even as Hoshi mutters back to her, “wouldn’t blame him if he skipped.”

“Yeah,” Shirogane says. “Poor Momota-kun…”

Kaede remains uncharacteristically quiet on their walk, explaining it away when Shirogane asks with, “Just a lot on my mind. Yesterday was a lot to take in.”

Hoshi nods in agreement, and their conversation is just as dead when they finally reach the dining hall. The room made for sixteen feels uncomfortably empty, and Shirogane says, “it’s so quiet. It’s… almost hard to imagine what it was like when everyone was here. It feels like it was so long ago.”

“Yeah,” Hoshi says. “Might be only the three of us today, too. Well, four of us maybe.” He glances to Kaede. “Any chance Kiibo might feel like making an appearance.”

Kaede shakes her head. “I don’t think so. He said he was busy with something.”

“Oh, I see,” Shirogane says. “I wonder if yesterday was hard on him, too. Being forcibly shut down so many times might not have been good for him.”

“I think it was something like that, yeah,” Kaede agrees.

“Really?” Hoshi asks. “Seemed like he was fine at the trial.”

Kaede only shrugs in response, and is immediately grateful for the dining hall doors swinging open to cut off anymore questions. Tenko enters alone as Shirogane calls out to her, “Ah, Chabashira-san, are you joining us today?”

Tenko nods and takes a seat with stiff movements. She’s sitting rigid in her chair, and Kaede says, “We could bring you something later if you don’t want to—”

“Tenko is fine,” she says. “And there are so few of us left that Tenko thinks she can’t skip meetings anymore if we want to plan anything together.”

“I don’t know if we really have any plans,” Shirogane says.

“Well,” Kaede says. “We had another trial, so there might be more to explore, but after that I don’t know.”

Tenko nods. “Okay. Tenko doesn’t know if she’ll be able to explore with everyone. Momota-san is still…”

“He’s not doing great then, huh?” Hoshi asks.

Tenko shakes her head. “No. He barely said anything to Tenko last night, and he was still asleep this morning when Tenko left.”

Very quietly Kaede asks, “how much time do you think he has left?”

“Not a lot,” Tenko says. “Tenko tried to treat his burns but… she doesn’t know what to do about him coughing up blood.”

“And there was a lot of that last night?” Shirogane asks.

“Yes,” Tenko says. “There was. Tenko was actually… really relieved she felt a pulse this morning.”

Hoshi sighs. “What happens if someone dies of an illness? Do we still have to hold a trial?”

Kaede grimaces. “I really hope not.”

“Yeah,” Shirogane says. “Something like that would be just awful.”

They all go quiet, letting their situation truly sink in. Kaede jumps in her chair when the door opens again and a voice calls out, “hey, what’s everyone so down for?”

“M-Momota-san!?” Tenko shouts, whipping around to face him as he limps towards the table. “What are you doing here!? You need to go back to Tenko’s room and—”

He waves a hand that Kaede notes with a wince is now coated in gauze. “Relax, Chabashira. I’m not about to keel over. ‘Sides I was getting hungry. So,” he turns to the table, “someone mind grabbing me something? Fine motor controls aren’t exactly my thing right now.”

Momota finishes his statement with a laugh that makes the others exchange a few looks with each other. “Um, Momota-kun?” Shirogane says. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m great,” he answers. “Just hungry like I said. Maybe a bit hurt that Chabashira just ditched me this morning, but since I’m a guy and all I guess I should have seen that coming.”

“Hey,” Kaede says. “Momota-kun, you really don’t need to force yourself to—”

“Can we not talk about it?” Momota snaps. “Look nothing you can say is gonna make what happened yesterday okay. So let’s just not.”

The table goes quiet, but the scowl on Momota’s face vanishes the instant Hoshi says, “you said you were hungry?” and starts to pile food on a nearby plate.

“Yeah,” Momota says brightly. “Knew I could count on you, man. Takes one guy to understand another man’s hunger, right?”

Hoshi nods dully. “Sure.”

Seeing Momota smiling and laughing even as he winces the first time he tries to pick up his utensils hurts. Hoshi plays along in small clipped answers, though Kaede supposes that Momota was used to talking with Maki enough that building a conversation out of so little feedback was something he trained himself to do long before. Shirogane talks a little, too, and Tenko’s contribution that he should stop using his hands are dismissed with a wave of his hand.

Kaede had thought seeing him sulk or just hearing that he was holed up in Tenko’s room would be painful. Momota eats slowly with his damaged hands, and he tries to make a joke worthy of actually laughing at out of Hoshi’s brief reply to him. Kaede watches silently, and her eyes can’t help but wander to the fading bruise on his cheek where she had slapped him across the face.

Her thoughts are only disrupted by Kiibo beeping to life in her backpack. Kaede bolts at the noise, announcing, “I’ll be right back,” before she hurries out of the dining hall.

When she pulls him out of his backpack Kiibo says, “Akamatsu-san, I wanted to report in again about my progress.”

“Can you make it quick?” she asks. “We’re… kind of busy today.”

“Busy?” Kiibo asks.

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “It’s just this thing Monokuma’s making us do.”

“Oh, perhaps I could be of assistance then—”

“No,” she says. “It’s fine. We can handle it. Anyway, what did you want to tell me?”

Kiibo lowers his voice slightly. “I believe very soon I will be able to gain complete control over the school.”

Kaede’s eyes widen. “Really? What does that mean for us?”

“It means I’ll be able to control potentially everything not independent of the school’s network,” he says. “Things like Monokuma, who possess his own A.I., are beyond my control as are machines that are not operated from a remote source like the remaining Exisals.”

“Oh,” Kaede says, slightly disappointed. “Then what can you control?”

“The school’s main operating systems,” Kiibo says. “Lights, doors, the central hub where all footage comes in. The cameras themselves appear to be independent A.I. like Monokuma, but I can take control of where and how their footage is processed.”

“So,” Kaede says, brows draw in concentration. “You can turn off lights, open locked doors and… watch security camera footage. Um, Kiibo-kun, I have to be honest with you. I’m not exactly sure how all of that is supposed to help us end the killing game.”

“Th-There’s more than that!” he says. “I have also taken it upon myself to eliminate the mastermind’s ability to produce more Monokumas.”

That catches Kaede’s attention. “Really?”

“Yes,” Kiibo says. “In my search I found something that I believe was the mastermind’s plans for the game. Part of it detailed rebuilding the Monokubs to allow them to pilot the remaining Exisals again. So, I disabled that feature of the Mother Monokuma.”

“That’s amazing,” Kaede says. “So the Monokuma running around now is the last one?”

“Unless there is another manufacturing process I haven’t discovered, I believe so,” Kiibo says. “And there is one more thing that I believe might be the most important. I might have found a way to interfere with Monokuma’s executions.”

Kaede nods. “He did say something about that last time, which is why Ouma-kun’s execution… didn’t involve anything with technology.”

“That was unfortunate,” Kiibo says. “I suppose it was also naïve of me to assume Monokuma would not do anything to take measures against my control. However, I still believe it is a good thing that I have limited his options.”

“I think so, too,” Kaede says, then hesitates for a moment before adding, “And, um, Kiibo-kun, you said you were looking at a file that told you about the mastermind’s plans? Can you maybe keep searching for stuff like that to let us know what’s coming up?”

“Of course,” he says. “Oh, and, Akamatsu-san, have you told the others about… your suspicions?”

Kaede feels her throat go dry. “Right now everyone is together—including you know who—so… I think I’ll tell everyone more privately, so I don’t draw more attention. And if it gets recorded, you can just delete those conversations so the mastermind doesn’t see them, right?”

“I will work on manipulating footage as soon as possible, too,” Kiibo announces. “And I will also report in later with my progress again.”

“Oh, one more thing,” Kaede says. “How much of the footage have you watched?”

“Bits and pieces,” he says. “I’m afraid there is a lot to go through, but I can do a more thorough search of that as well.”

“Um,” she says. “Maybe put that as a slightly lower priority. The other stuff is more important, don’t you think?”

“I suppose,” Kiibo says. “Well then, if that is everything, I will contact you when I have made significant progress.”

Kaede tries to smile at him as she says, “Thanks, Kiibo-kun,” and he turns off.

She slips him back into her backpack and presses the heels of her hands to her eyes.

“Well now, well now, well now,” a familiar voice says from behind her that just makes Kaede groan. “Do we have a genuine double agent on our hands?”

She turns to Monokuma tilting his furry head at her. “I cannot wait until you die,” she says.

“So cold, so heartless, so—”

“Are you going to give us the crap to explore yet or not?” Kaede asks.

Monokuma huffs. “What else do you think I hauled myself out of my cozy bed for? Because I just wanted to see you brats’ smiling faces?”

“Then let’s go,” she says, already turning back towards the dining hall.

“Wait,” he says, waddling after her. “Got one more question for you, missy. Now this is just from one bear to another, but you happen to know where that little old remote for the Exisals got carried off to?”

“No?” Kaede says. “Is it missing?”

Monokuma hums. “Okay, alright, I gotcha. Welp! Thanks for nothing!”

With that he hurries ahead of her, tiny arms throwing the doors back to the cafeteria open. Kaede rolls her eyes as she walks around him to sit back with the others. “Someone interrupted me,” she says plainly as she sits down.

“Ahem, ahem,” Monokuma says. “Settle down everyone. Your headmaster has an important announcement.”

“We have to run around and explore shit now?” Momota asks.

“No!” Monokuma snaps. “The announcement is that your lovely headmaster has brought you wonderful, just to die for gifts that will enrich your school life by unlocking the last few areas for you to engage with at your leisure.”

Momota frowns. “Isn’t that what I just said?”

“What you said just didn’t have any finesse,” Monokuma says. “No crackle, no sizzle, no pop.”

“So are you gonna hand it over?” Hoshi asks.

Mononkuma pouts. “Man, you kids really don’t play along, do you? You’re breaking a poor old bear’s heart. I’m not as young as I used to be, you know. I’ve been doing this for so long, and I’m so old, but do kids today respect their elders? Nooooo.”

“We’re waiting,” Kaede says.

“Sheesh, fine, fine,” he says, waddling over. “I have two presents for you today and the first is,” with a flourish he pulls what looks like a far too large jackhammer looking object for him to plausibly hide behind his back. “The Monokuma Justice-Jackhammer!”

Tenko stands and hesitantly takes it from him. “Tenko will hold on to this,” she says. “And the other item is?”

Monokuma brings his paws to his mouth. “That’s for me to know and you to find out later. Knock yourself out with the hammer first, then try giving your lovely headmaster a ring.”

With his cryptic comment, he disappears again.

“Um, so,” Shirogane says after a moment. “Any guesses where,” she gestures vaguely to the object in Tenko’s hands, “something like this would go?”

“There weren’t any more stairs or closed doors on the top floor, and, well,” Momota rubs the back of his head. “You use shit like this for digging, right? So we’re going down probably.”

“Think I have a guess,” Hoshi says, shuffling to his feet. “Using crutches has made me realize just how uneven the floor in parts of the school is, and in the entrance hall there’s like definitely an indent that looks like something like that would fit in it.”

“Okay,” Kaede says. “So,” she sends a not so subtle glance in Momota’s direction, “are we all going?”

“‘Course,” Momota says, pointedly ignoring the look she’s giving him. “Why would anyone stay behind?”

Kaede tears her eyes away. “No reason.”

“Then we should go,” Momota says.

Tenko gives her a worried look on their way out, but there’s no other communication until they reach the school’s foyer.

Momota again is the one to speak first, still pretending to be oblivious to everyone walking on eggshells around him. “Hoshi,” he says. “It was somewhere around here, right?”

“Think so,” Hoshi says as he walks roughly to the middle of the room. “There’s an outline of a hatch or something. Not much but it almost tripped me a few times.”

Tenko approaches him, studying the ground intently. “Over here somewhere? Tenko isn’t even sure how to work this thing actually,” she inspects the jackhammer like device. “Mostly because Tenko doesn’t think there’s an on button.”

“Well,” Shirogane says. “None of the items Monokuma’s given us before have been normal. Maybe you just… tap it to the hatch thingie?”

Tenko looks back at the others for approval before doing as Shirogane suggested. The object immediately reacts, causing the entire ground in the area Hoshi indicated to fall away into a staircase leading further away. Tenko takes the first few steps down before calling out, “Tenko thinks it’s a tunnel.”

“Oh, should we—” Shirogane starts to say before glancing back at Momota and Hoshi. “Actually, um, are you two okay with stairs?”

Momota snorts. “My room’s on the second floor of the dorms. ‘Course I can handle stairs.”

Tenko’s voice carries back out to them, “it’s also very dusty down here. Maybe Momota-san shouldn’t—”

“I said I can handle it.” With that, Momota pushes past Shirogane to join Tenko in the tunnel.

As Shirogane seems to take a moment to recover from being shoved, Hoshi says, “Might take a while, but I can do it, too.”

Hoshi moves slowly, but it’s only a few minutes before their entire little group begins to walk down the relatively undecorated tunnel. “You know,” Momota says. “I was thinking that it seems like we already have almost everything a school would need and then some extra shit. What other crap could Monokuma have…”

The words die in his throat when their path is cut short by a large door with a familiar symbol on it. Kaede’s face is grim as she recognizes what the room is immediately but still tries to the handles she knows are locked anyway. “Not opening,” she says. “Which basically confirms… this is Ouma-kun’s lab.”

Shirogane starts to speak, but Kaede watches Momota as his fake cheer withers before her eyes. “Um, for every locked talent lab before,” she says. “We always broke in somehow. Admittedly… Ouma-kun was the person who broke in all three times before, but we could still use—”

“Forget it,” Momota says.

Shirogane looks like she wants to say more, but Tenko stops her asking, “If we’re done, Tenko can take anyone who wants to back to their room.”

“That,” Momota turns away from the door, smile back on. “That sounds great, Chabashira, but I’m gonna stay here for a while.”

Tenko nods. “Okay, Tenko understands.”

“Oh, but, um,” Shirogane says. “Didn’t Monokuma say he would give us a second exploration item when we finished here?”

Hoshi shrugs, already turning back the way they came. “Who cares.”

Tenko is a bit kinder when says, “Tenko thinks that can wait.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess so,” Shirogane says, and Kaede wonders if the others really can’t see the true cause of her disappointment.

As Shirogane starts to retreat with Hoshi and Tenko, Kaede says, “Momota-kun, I think we should talk. Maybe not right now but soon.”

Momota stays quiet, as Shirogane starts to say, “ah, but Akamatsu-san—”

“Now’s fine,” he says softly.

Kaede wasn’t expecting that answer, but does her best to not seem caught off guard as she gives him a quick nod. “Okay, we’ll meet up with you guys later then.”

Tenko’s face is full of understanding as she leaves. Shirogane’s face is full of something else, but Kaede looks away before the other girl can notice her staring. She hears Tenko and Hoshi’s footsteps start to fade away and then Shirogane’s slightly lingering ones a few moments later.

When they disappear almost altogether, Momota lets out a hollow laugh. “You remember the last time we were exploring, and I yelled at everyone to fuck off? They were driving me crazy, and I was just so fed up that I didn’t want them anywhere near me. And now,” he shakes his head as he shifts to sit propped up against the door. “Now I don’t know. I just kinda feel like an asshole.”

“You couldn’t have known what would happen,” Kaede says.

“No, I should have,” he says. “I thought about it last night when Chabashira was lecturing me about killing myself. And then I had an epiphany. All my stupid talk about dying—that’s what made them do it.” He leans his head against the door to stare at the ceiling. “Kokichi said it himself. Maki would be pissed if I died or something.”

Kaede isn’t sure how to respond to that as she joins him on the floor. “And what are you going to do now?” she asks. “Are you still planning to die?”

“I dunno,” Momota says. “Well, actually I do know that pretty soon it’s not gonna be my choice anymore.”

Kaede hugs her knees to her chest. “That,” she says. “That really sucks.”

“Yeah,” he says. “It does.”

They’re both quiet for a while before Momota says, “I should’ve said this when everyone was here, but… I’m sorry for acting like a piece of shit at the trial. And for punching you.”

“It’s okay—I don’t think anyone really blames you for that,” Kaede says. “At least I don’t anymore.”

“Are you talking about the trial or the punch?”

“The trial,” Kaede says. “And I’ll forgive you for the punch when my bruise is gone.”

He snorts, “hey that’s the one you’re supposed to not care about. You slapped me first, after all.”

“Well, yeah,” Kaede says. “But I always assumed you were one of those guys who has, like, a thing against sucker punching girls. And pulling their hair."

Momota laughs. “You’re pretty tough—I figured you could take it.”

“Is that why?” Kaede asks wryly.

“Eh,” he sighs. “It’s better than the truth. And—what was it—gentle lies aren’t all that bad, I guess.”

“Yeah,” she says. “Think I remember someone saying that a few times.”

Momota smiles as he shakes his head. “I was horrible to him, you know. I still don’t know why he decided I was his favorite or whatever way back, but I hated it.”

“I remember that,” Kaede says. “I think he said it was because so many of the guys had died, and Hoshi-kun and Gonta-kun were pretty attached to each other already… and he always had a thing against Kiibo-kun.”

“He told me about that actually,” Momota says. “He literally thought Kiibo was suspicious because he was a robot.”

Kaede nods. “So he was robophobic, after all. And when did you guys talk about that?”

Momota shrugs. “Don’t remember. He told me a lot of things. Even when I thought he was one of the most annoying people I had ever met, he would just come bug me and tell me all this shit and then play it off like he was lying. I still don’t know how much of it was true.”

“Huh,” Kaede says. “I never really imagined Ouma-kun as the kind of person to want to share.”

“I guess.” Momota runs a hand through his hair. “God, a guy fucking dies for you and you still don’t know where you stand with him.”

“He liked you,” Kaede says. “I think he was just trying to mess you with at first, but after… you tried to kill him…” she looks over to Momota shaking his head. “What happened with that?”

“I told you I’d tell you that story at some point, didn’t I? Well,” he sighs. “You and Maki kept saying all this stuff about killing the mastermind and I just—I thought I had to do something. I couldn’t let myself be the only one doing nothing, or at least that’s what it felt like.”

“I get that,” Kaede says. “And I’m sorry if I pushed you into it.”

“No,” Momota says. “Don’t apologize. It was my stupid choice. And… just thinking about it as soon as Iruma said all that crap about dying in her virtual world fucked me up. But I still went through with it for, like, five seconds.”

“Ouma-kun said something similar,” Kaede says. “Then he said you got down on your knees and begged him for forgiveness.”

Momota snorts. “‘Course he’d say something like that. But no, I shoved him against a bookshelf, and it wasn’t that hard but he yelped like he was in pain and fell to the floor… and I lost my nerve completely.” He rubs the back of his head. “I froze, and he started saying a bunch of stuff that I barely heard. I was just too freaked out by what I had done. But I do remember him saying… ‘you can’t do this, you’re not a killer, you’re not going to do this’ or something like that.”

“And he was right,” Kaede says. “You’re not.”

“And I didn’t realize how right he was until he was literally saying it,” Momota says. “And then, uh, that whole ‘begging for forgiveness’ shit he told you isn’t… too far from the truth.”

Kaede quirks an eyebrow. “You didn’t actually get down on your hands and knees, did you?”

“No,” Momota says with a short laugh. “But I just could not stop saying I was sorry. I had no idea what the hell else to do, so I just kept saying it over and over again and I think it kinda freaked him out. He…” Momota trails off, looking somewhere off into the distance in the empty hallway. “He literally calmed me down from my own murder attempt. And I just felt like shit.”

“Then you logged out, and Harukawa-san was coming for him, right?” Kaede prompts.

He nods. “Yeah. Sounds terrible but part of me was almost thankful when I realized what she was trying to do. I mean, it was still shit because I didn’t want Maki to kill anyone, but… I could do something to make up for what I did. Which is also why I announced in front of everyone that I was gonna protect him, and, well,” he lets out a self deprecating laugh. “Did a fucking great job of that, didn’t I?”

“If it makes you feel better,” Kaede says. “I don’t think Ouma-kun’s the kind of person that would ever just let himself get protected.”

“Probably, and,” Momota says, “I think all this shit has taught me I kinda suck at being a hero. Kokichi and Maki did what they did to save me, and now Chabashira’s having to take care of me all the time…”

Kaede hugs her knees a little closer. “Hey, Momota-kun, I think I said this before, but I meant it when I said you’re a better person than me. I’m not sure if I was jealous exactly but I just… I didn’t get—and I still don’t—how you can be so patient and so forgiving to people who just… don’t seem to deserve it.”

Momota smirks at her. “I know you’re just saying that to make me feel better—”

“But it’s true,” Kaede says. “Even when Ouma-kun and I were on the same side, I know he still hated me and I hated him, and I thought that was just the way it was. But then I would remember how you could actually talk to him, and… I don’t understand. Maybe I just don’t have that much faith in people.”

He goes quiet for a moment, looking her over before saying, “maybe it’s about faith. I never really thought about it. I guess I just don’t believe completely irredeemable people exist.”

“I,” Kaede says. “I don’t know if I could think that way.”

“A lot of people don’t,” Momota says. “Maki thought she was hopeless. Like, it was too late for her to ever actually choose her own path. I don’t know what Kokichi thought about himself. Sometimes he seemed so full of himself and others he’d say all this crap about how his life didn’t matter. Like, as soon as we got back to my room after Kiibo died, he was the one who came up with this plan for us to lie about what I tried to do to him.”

“I don’t think I get how a person can be so nonchalant about their own death either,” Kaede says.

Momota pauses for a second. “I’ve been thinking about that, too. He was so fine with dying, and I’m not sure if that made what happened better or worse.”

Kaede hesitates for a moment as well before she finally says, “actually, I think I do understand… being prepared. When we went to the first trial, I thought that was it for me. I was really scared, but I had already decided to go through with it. But if something happened, and I was to die now,” she sighs. “I don’t know about that. I guess you change your mind when it seems less real, if that makes sense.”

Momota nods. “Yeah, it does. I told myself before that dying was impossible because I had so much other shit I wanted to do, but now I think I just want it to be on my own terms. If I can decide, I’d pick literally anything over just letting myself get killed for this fucked up game.”

“I know we had a trial for them, but,” Kaede says. “I think Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun felt the same way. At least… Ouma-kun implied it, but he kind of has a hard time just saying what he means.”

Momota smiles. “Oh yeah. It was so annoying, and I think he was really fucking proud of that, too.”

“He did seem to get a kick out of confusing us,” Kaede says. “By the way, did you ever figure out why he had Harukawa-san ask you to get weird stuff from Iruma-san’s lab like Kiibo-kun’s head?”

Momota shakes his head. “No, and there was more than just that. There was, like, that and then a small power cell, some tools, and then some other crap from Kiibo’s lab. I don’t get it, but… I still haven’t read the note he gave me yet.”

“Did you not want to do it when Tenko-san was there?” Kaede asks.

“No,” he says. “I just… I don’t think I could have handled reading something they wrote knowing they were gonna die last night, but,” he shifts and pulls a familiar looking folded piece of paper from his coat pocket, “I was planning on trying to do it today.”

“I can leave you alone if you want,” Kaede offers.

Momota pauses, fiddling with the paper before he finally says, “you can stay if you want.”

Before Kaede can say another word, he unfolds the paper, and she sees cramped handwriting filling up the first half of the page with a few doodles running along the margins.

Momota’s grip on the paper tightens slightly, and Kaede has to inch closer to make out the words herself. It says:

‘Momota—  
I’m writing this in the middle of the night, and I doubt I will have slept before or after its completion. Any errors are due to my own lack of sleep, and I hope they do not interfere with the point I want to make.

I’m writing to you because, while I have never cared what the others thought of me as long as I achieved what I needed to, I wouldn’t feel right leaving you unanswered. I also know that I have only found the resolve to do this because of you. You know my history—I’m used to fighting in someone else’s place, but that’s not what this is about.

I think I didn’t want to think I counted as a person anymore because it would make me too angry. If I was a person, then what happened to me wasn’t right. But in the killing game, we were all people—you kept telling me that over and over—and we were being treated like weapons. You said I was free to make my own path now because I wasn’t with the people controlling me anymore—I didn’t have to be afraid of hurting anyone anymore.

But that wasn’t true. I just went from one owner to another. The mastermind was using me as a weapon just like the people who trained me to be this way. But I didn’t want to be tricked or used anymore. I wanted to think for myself and find a different solution. I don’t know if I did what I did because I wanted to save or protect anyone. I just know when I saw the Flashback Light, I knew it was too convenient, and I knew it was designed to manipulate me. I knew the mastermind was trying to use me, and I knew I was too angry to keep doing nothing.

Killing is still the only thing I know how to do right, and the person I’m killing is myself. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise to you.

I’m also glad I was able to fight in your place to stop the time limit. I know you never listen to me but do what you can to survive.  
— ~~Harukawa~~ Harumaki’

Kaede looks up at Momota when she finishes, but he doesn’t seem to acknowledge her presence, already focused on the next section. Kaede glances back down to it, seeing Ouma’s familiar childish handwriting scrawling over the rest of the page.

‘My dearest, darling Momota-chan,

I hope whatever Harumaki-chan wrote didn’t bore you too much. I know I fell asleep halfway through reading it, so I can’t imagine what it’d be like for someone with your attention span. And since Harumaki-chan and I decided I should do the trial (can you imagine her trying to pretend to be me???), I get to see the note last so I know my wonderful drawings made it a little less boring for you~

But anyway! I promise only some of this will be lies. Which parts are true are left for you to figure out~

And also I’m dead! I wrote all this with the intention of handing it off to you if I wasn’t going to make it, and I have a pretty good feeling that’s going to be the case. Don’t worry though! I knew this would happen as soon as I agreed to stay behind in the hanger. And this way you have Akamatsu-chan with you, too! She kinda sucks, but you guys are friends so get her to say something comforting.

And if you do get a chance, tell Akamatsu-chan she’s a nosy, murder-y, busybody, buuut at the end of the day she wasn’t really that boring. Sometimes you’re not boring either! Most of the time you are, but other times you do things that no one’s ever done before like have expectations for me or say you believe in me or act like we’re friends.

You’re a weird guy, Momota-chan! But I guess that’s also what makes you less boring, so keep being weird. But not like really stupidly, naively, suicidally weird. Just the regular kind. But what do I know? I am dead, after all.

Also I still don’t get why you like Harumaki-chan. She’s soooo annoying and whiney. Do you just like difficult people, Momota-chan? Are you like a masochist or something? I know I said to be weird but not like that, geeeeeze. But that’s okay. If my beloved’s into it then I guess I can deal~

I guess now I should end with one last thing to say to you and for you to remember me always. You’re ~~dumb~~ annoying a lot and look like ~~an idiot~~ a circus clown, but you’re an okay guy and it was nice while it lasted.

Loooooove,  
Your superior, Great Supreme Ruler, King of this World, and Best Person You Will Ever Meet, Ouma Kokichi’

Kaede can’t help but roll her eyes at the way Ouma signs off his letter, but between the weird drawings and random insults at her, she thinks she gets what he was trying to convey in his own unique way.

Momota just keeps staring it, though Kaede sees his eyes stop moving after a few moments when she finishes. Hesitantly, she places a hand on his shoulder. “Kaito,” she says. “How are you—”

“Fine,” he mumbles. “‘m fine.”

He doesn’t shrug her off, however, and Kaede stays where she is. They sit in silence for a few moments, and Kaede lets her eyes wander back over the note, glancing at Ouma’s doodles or rereading certain lines.

Then Momota says, “Kaede,” and he points to the place in Ouma’s section where he mentions how annoying Maki is. “What does that say?”

Kaede stares in confusion for a second before realizing his finger is actually directed towards a blurry scribble right below the line Kaede thought he was pointing to. She narrows her eyes and realizes it does seem like more than one of Ouma’s regular writing flourishes. “I’m not sure,” she says. “Can I see it?”

Momota hands it over to her but hunches over her shoulder to keep looking for himself. “I think it’s letters.”

Kaede brings the paper closer to her face, squinting even more at the tiny message. “I think you’re right,” she says. Then, she tries turning it over, and the letters come into slightly better focus. “It says…”

She spends another second studying it, and Momota finds the answer first, murmuring, “‘the other Exisal…’”

“What does that mean?” Kaede asks. “The other Exisal is still in the hanger, right?”

“Yeah,” he says, slightly breathless. “I think… we should check that out right now.”

Kaede’s mind flickers briefly to her plan with Shirogane before she stands. “Okay, let’s go.”

They walk briskly, and Kaede can’t quite tell if they should bother with trying to hide what they’re doing at all. Momota has a determined look on his face that doesn’t falter even when he starts to wince at the exertion their long walk must have on him by the end of it.

At the hanger’s entrance, the previously used electrohammer is still lying outside the gate, and Kaede picks it up. “The charge is back,” she says. “I can knock down the barrier whenever you’re ready.”

“Do it now,” Momota says.

Kaede nods, and as she approaches the barrier, she hears footsteps echoing behind them and Tenko’s voice calling out, “Kaede-san! Momota-san! Monokuma told us to come right—”

Kaede swings the hammer before she can finish and the barrier collapses. Momota darts forward to pull open the gate, and as the others round the corner, Monokuma pops up to start shouting. “Now just what do you kids think you’re—Eep!”

He disappears as soon as he had come as the spot he had been standing on suddenly gets riddled with bullets. The remaining purple Exisal jerks forward, its guns still smoking. Maki says, “Find cover. This place is about to become a war zone.”

Kaede can only gape at the sight before her while Momota says, “Maki?”

The monitor over head turns on. “Ahem, attention!” Monokuma growls. “Any and all naughty students who should be dead are now going to be executed! Resistance will not be tolerated nor will trying to assist in—”

The screen turns to static and after a second, Kiibo’s face appears. “Everyone, please do not be alarmed!” he says. “I have accessed the school’s cameras, and I am afraid you are all in danger—there is a tank currently outside the dorms that I believe Monokuma is piloting with the intent to shoot to kill.”

Kaede still finds processing any of the sudden information in front of her too monumental a task when the Exisal’s cockpit opens with a soft click. Maki is sitting there calmly, a few futuristic looking guns, other mechanical parts, and Kiibo’s head piled in the cramped space with her. “I’ll explain later,” she says. “But right now we need to move fast.”

Shirogane stammers. “H-Harukawa-san? How can you be alive? You were—”

“What do we need to do?” Momota asks.

Maki turns to him, and though her face remains as impassive as ever, something bright flickers in her normally cold eyes. “We need,” she says, reaching over to grab Kiibo’s head. “To send a message—one the mastermind can’t manipulate. And,” she looks over the others, “I’m going to need at least a few of you to help me.”

“Whatever you need,” Momota says immediately. “Maki, I’ll do any—”

“I know,” she says. “But it’s more than one person can handle.”

Hoshi nods. “Can’t run, but I’ll do what I can.”

Tenko sends a quick nervous look to Kaede before saying, “Tenko will try to help, too.”

Shirogane just shakes her head, mumbling to herself, “What is going on? How can this be happening?”

Kaede steps forward. She stares hard at Maki, and straightens her shoulders. “What’s the plan?”

“To put is simply,” Maki says, “we show the audience exactly how much the mastermind’s game has failed. We’re going to contact them directly and tell them this killing game—every killing game—is over.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And some people probably saw this twist coming, too, haha. Though I feel the need to say there's at least a few more tricks I have planned that will also be coming up soon!


	38. Daily Life XV

Maki speaks fast as she tosses the supplies she had been hoarding in the Exisal to them. Tenko catches Kiibo’s head easily enough as Maki explains, “getting a signal of our own set up is easier than you might think.”

“Really?” Hoshi says. “Because I was thinking something along the lines of us trying to figure out how to even establish a radio signal, bypass whatever Monokuma’s system, and do both those things while under tank fire, apparently.”

“Yes,” Maki says. 

Shirogane wrings her hands. “So—wait, um—how is it easier than we think then?”

“It’s easier because it’s actually possible,” Maki replies. 

“What do we need to do then?” Momota asks. “You say the word and I’ll get it—”

“You’re staying here where it’s safe,” Maki says. 

Momota frowns. “I’m not about to just sit on ass doing nothing while you—”

“I’m going to hold Monokuma off for as long as possible,” Maki says. “For now, I should be his only target, but if he begins to suspect what we’re up to, then he’ll change his focus to you guys if he’s smart.”

“And what exactly are we doing that’s going to make him want to blow us up?” Hoshi asks.

Maki nods towards Kiibo’s head in Tenko’s hands. “The mastermind wasn’t the only one broadcasting at the beginning—Kiibo also had the same abilities, though I doubt he was aware of them.”

“I can assure you I was not,” Kiibo says from his screen overhead. 

Maki barely pays his interruption any heed as she continues. “Iruma said most of his body was scrap metal because his A.I. could no longer connect to it, but his head still contains a working camera and an antenna. Chabashira—you’re going to go to Kiibo’s lab and use what you can to get a signal set up there.”

“Tenko thinks she can do that,” Tenko says. “Though… she’s not very good with computers.”

“None of us are, but we have to make due,” Maki says.

“I’m good with computers,” Momota says. “If you let me—”

“I already said no,” Maki says.

“Um,” Shirogane says. “And what about the rest of us? Is this the only thing you need to do to really end the game? Are we sure there’s not anymore secrets the mastermind’s hiding from us?”

“I have no idea,” Maki says. “But the mastermind doesn’t matter if we can go over their head. However,” she turns to Kaede. “If everyone goes to Kiibo’s lab, it won’t take Monokuma long to figure out that it’s important. Akamatsu, Hoshi—you investigate the school. If I get the chance, I’ll blow up the door in the library, which should at least distract Monokuma.”

“Makes sense,” Hoshi says. “Just don’t blow us up.”

Maki nods. “I’ll see what I can manage. Shirogane—you go with Chabashira. The two of you are the only ones who would be able to run in case Monokuma starts targeting you.”

“Ah, I’ll try my best then,” Shirogane agrees, her hesitation clear.

“Okay, but what about me?” Momota asks. 

Maki snaps to face him. “You’re staying here where it’s safe.”

Momota lets out a frustrated sigh. “I already told you I’m not—”

“Harukawa-san,” Kaede keeps a hesitant eye on Shirogane blending in even as she addresses Maki. “How did you figure all this stuff out?”

Maki lets whatever argument she was about to begin with Momota drop immediately. “We don’t have time for me to explain everything, but Ouma and Iruma did most of it. I suspected the mastermind was manipulating us and then compared notes with Ouma.”

“And this was the plan you came up with?” Momota asks. “Kokichi dies, and you—what the hell happens after we establish this signal and tell whoever’s watching that Monokuma’s full of shit? What happens to you?”

Maki crosses her arms, the easiness of her speech when she had been giving orders vanishing. “I go to Kiibo’s lab, tell the audience I’m alive and that the killing game is broken. And then…” she sighs. “We hope that’s enough.”

“Enough to convince Monokuma to cancel the game?” Kaede asks. 

Maki sighs. “As far as I can tell, there are two outcomes. The game ends here either way if Monokuma’s audience loses faith in him and isn’t interested anymore.”

“But those two outcomes,” Shirogane says. “Are they either Monokuma lets us all go or… he just decides to kill us all?”

“Yes,” Maki says. 

“And if this plan fails,” Shirogane says. “Then we die anyway, right? We’ll be breaking the no violence against the headmaster rule.”

“Tenko thinks we should still try,” Tenko says. “We either stay together or we return to the killing game, and Tenko refuses to let that happen. And also, if we pass up an opportunity to end the game, then… then Tenko thinks that’s an insult to everyone who has died.”

Momota presses his fists together. “Took the words right out of my mouth. Let’s make Kokichi’s death mean something. He sacrificed himself for us to have this opportunity, and I’m not about to let it got to waste.”

“Sounds like we’re all in agreement, then,” Hoshi says.

Kaede watches Shirogane out of the corner of her eye before she responds, “We are.”

“Well,” Momota says. “I still have one problem.”

“I’m not letting you put yourself in danger,” Maki says. “I don’t care if it hurts your pride or if you’re going to spend the rest of our lives complaining about it. You’re not getting yourself killed now.”

“I’m not gonna get myself killed,” Momota says. “All I want is to finally fulfill my promise, alright?”

Kaede raises an eyebrow. “Promise?”

“I said I would protect Kokichi, and if I can,” Momota presses his fists together, a determined look spreading over his face. “I want to at least protect what he sacrificed his life for.”

Maki stares hard at him for a long moment while Tenko breathes out, “Momota-san…”

Maki keeps watching him before sighing and grabbing what looks to Kaede like a strange futuristic bazooka like object before hoping out of the Exisal. Despite its heavy appearance, Maki holds the weapon with ease to the point of being able to casually gesture to the Exisal’s now open cockpit while wielding it with one hand. “You’ll be safer in the Exisal. Monokuma’s other weapons will do a lot of damage, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Momota-san can’t pilot that!” Tenko says. “His hands are too—”

“Chabashira,” Momota says. “It’ll be fine.”

Tenko frowns. “Momota-san, with your current motor skills and deteriorating health, there’s no way—”

“I can handle it,” he says. “I know you’ve been taking care of me this whole time, and I appreciate that, but just… trust me, alright? This is something I need to do.”

Tenko still seems upset, but her only protest is to shake her head. “Maybe you’re not awful, but after all this time, you’re still just a reckless boy, aren’t you?”

Momota grins at her as he mounts the Exisal to sit inside. “You know it.”

Hoshi turns to Maki. “So are you just going to run around unprotected?”

“I am,” Maki says. “But that’s fine. Stealth and dodging are my specialties anyway.”

“Oh, right,” Shirogane says. “I mean, you are the Ultimate Assassin and not the Ultimate… Mecha Pilot, I guess?”

“But won’t you be really exposed like that?” Kaede asks. “And you’re the one Monokuma’s aiming for, too—not Kaito.” Maki’s eyes flicker over to her as Kaede continues. “And if you die before Tenko-san can set up the broadcast, then… then we fail, right?”

“Yes,” Maki says. “I know, and I have no intentions to die before the plan is accomplished.”

“Well, yeah, I would hope so,” Kaede says. “But whether you intend it or not, doesn’t really matter if Monokuma gets a lucky shot or something.”

Maki nods. “I’m aware, but that isn’t going to happen. I’ve trained my whole life for missions like this—I’m not about to fail when I’m finally fighting for myself.” Kaede still frowns at her response, and Maki says, “trust me,” before readying her weapon in her hands and starting to stalk down the hall.

“Guess we’re starting then, huh?” Hoshi says, prompting the others to start following after her.

“We are,” Maki says. “Momota—you go out first. If Kiibo’s been doing his job then Monokuma ideally won’t know it’s not me in the Exisal.”

“Got it,” Momota says before pulling the Exisal’s cockpit door closed. 

“You won’t have to be a decoy for long,” Maki says. “Just long enough to allow me to run to cover and potentially fire a shot or two off. After that… just try not to do anything you know will get yourself killed.”

Kaede can hear the grin in Momota’s voice even through the Exisal’s speakers. “No promises.”

Maki rolls her eyes as she continues. “Everyone else run to your positions as soon as Monokuma’s focus turns to us—Akamatsu and Hoshi go first to make Monokuma think we’re interested in the school. Chabashira, Shirogane—you head to Kiibo’s lab when his focus isn’t on you. The longer your position stays secret, the better chance we have.”

“Okay, that all sounds fine,” Kaede says. “But what about the mastermind? They’re still one of us, and they could still potentially sabotage something.”

“They don’t matter,” Maki says. “If you find them, kill them. But if we don’t, then it doesn’t matter. Their death would be a benefit, but it’s not necessary.”

“It’s not?” Shirogane asks. “But aren’t they the one keeping us trapped here?”

Kaede eyes her warily as Maki answers, not breaking her stride for a second. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean killing them will do anything. They wanted us to believe that so we would turn on each other, but,” from her place a few paces back, Kaede sees something in Maki’s shoulders tighten. “You can’t end a killing game with more killing. It doesn’t work that way.”

“Okay,” Hoshi says. “And you say it ends with… a message.”

“A message,” Maki says. “And refusal. If you participate in the game at all, then you’ve already lost.”

“And a lot of us got close to that,” Momota says, voice echoing from his place in the Exisal. “Damn. That’s… hard to think about.”

“So that’s why Ouma-kun let himself be wrongly executed?” Shirogane asks. “To protest the game? O-Oh, and Harukawa-san, um, while we still have a minute just… how did you and Ouma-kun, you know, fake your death?”

Maki glances back at her, and Kaede thinks she isn’t going to respond at all until she pauses briefly to pull up the sleeve on her shirt. Underneath, Kaede sees tight wrappings of gauze. “We both gave what we could,” Maki says. “There had to be enough blood to be convincing, and the paint from the Exisal machine helped to supplement it.”

“You,” Kaede feels herself pale at the sight. “You both…” she shivers involuntarily at the thought. 

“Yes,” Maki says. “The excuse of cleaning the press allowed us to get away with using less than would have been believable, and the smell of the chemicals disguised the scent of the paint.” She pulls her sleeve back down. “Ouma thought of the second part of the plan. He didn’t have the constitution not to use some sort of trick.”

“Tenko doesn’t think many people would,” Tenko mumbles under her breath.

Maki shrugs as she resumes walking. “We both knew our strengths. Ouma could do the trial, and I can do this.”

Momota laughs. “Would be kinda hard to image Kokichi running around shooting lazers at Monokuma, though he’d probably have a pretty good time.”

Maki goes quiet for a brief moment as Kaede registers her eyes flickering to Momota. “You keep calling him—” she cuts herself off with a shake of her head and focuses her gaze back ahead of them as she continues. “Momota, at the trial, Ouma… didn’t say anything stranger than normal to you, did he? Anything about you?”

“Huh?” Momota says. “I don’t think so. Why? Was he supposed to?”

“No,” she says, stoically as ever. “I just wanted to check if he kept that part of our deal.”

“Wait,” Momota says. “What dea—”

“We’re here,” Maki interrupts as they reach the machinery bay’s exit. “Momota, are you ready?”

“Think so,” he says. “Hey, Kiibo, you know where Monokuma is?”

One of the ever prominent monitors overhead flickers on. “He is still in the main courtyard, though it appears he has set up an ambush or a barricade of some sort at the top of the stairs,” Kiibo says. “I suggest extreme caution in attempting any engagement, particularly due to Monokuma holding the high ground.”

“He has the high ground?” Shirogane echoes.

Kaede frowns. “Does… that matter?”

“Not if Momota’s a good enough distraction,” Maki says. She looks up to nod towards him. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Got it,” he says before turning to the others. “Well, I’ll see you guys again when we’re getting the hell out of here, you got that?”

Momota’s goodbye sends a strange feeling through Kaede’s chest, and as she glances around at her remaining classmates, the reality of physically going into battle hits her. “Right,” she says, even as she can’t help but feel an aching sense of dread as she lies. “We’ll all meet up then, and we’re all going to escape,” and she can’t help as her gaze drifts to Shirogane as she finishes, “together.”

Momota says something in affirmation back, but Kaede keeps looking at Shirogane standing passively as ever, somehow fading into the background in such a small group. Then the doors leading to the lower courtyard open, and Momota charges out.

Kaede hears Maki’s voice echo out of the Exisal’s speakers challenging Monokuma to come fight her face to face. The real Maki rolls her eyes at the bad impression and turns to the others to give one last warning of, “Monokuma doesn’t really want to hurt any of you—do what you can but don’t put yourself between him and me. That’s the only situation where I doubt he would hesitate.”

“Okay,” Kaede says. “And… you survive, too.”

Maki gives her an odd look. “We’ll see.” Then she slips out without another word.

A few moments pass, then the ringing of explosions sounding in the distance carries back to them. The monitor flickers back to Kiibo’s face, and he says, “Akamatsu-san, Hoshi-kun, you should head out now. Monokuma will need to see you for your misdirect to work, but also be careful.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Hoshi says to him before looking up at Kaede. “Akamatsu?”

Kaede feels a sudden surge of nerves at the idea of leaving Tenko alone with Shirogane and the most important aspect of their plan. Tenko seems to pick up on the first part of her worry from her gaze and replies, “Tenko will be okay. She promises.”

Kaede forces herself to smile back. “Alright. Just watch your back, okay?”

She sees Shirogane’s mouth quirk the slightest bit into a frown as Tenko responds, “Tenko will.”

Kaede gives the two girls a last measured look before turning back to Hoshi. He nods and starts to head outside.

There are no immediate visual signs of the battle on their first few steps, but as they near the stairs, the sounds of ricocheting bullets increases. As they begin to mount the stairs, Hoshi says, “I might slow you down. Don’t worry about running if you need to.”

Kaede’s mouth presses into a tight line. “If you want me to leave you behind, that’s not going to happen, and you’re not going to talk me into sacrificing you for no reason.”

He shrugs. “Fine. Just saying, it’d be pointless for both of us to die.”

“No one’s going to die,” Kaede says, more out of habit than anything else.

Hoshi doesn’t falter in his movements even as he says, “you don’t really believe that, do you?”

They finish mounting the stairs in silence with a few explosions providing enough background noise to give Kaede the excuse of not responding. At the top, Kaede sees the tank Kiibo had described as well as a few more Monokuma themed military artillery. Momota appears to be keeping the Exisal in constant motion, strafing to the side as a missile rockets past where he had been positioned seconds ago. 

Maki’s low to the ground in the bushes, and Kaede watches her as she steadies her weapon with the luxury being hidden allows. The lazer that shoots out of what Kaede had thought had been a rocket launcher is near blinding and strikes what looks like a Monokuma patterned attack helicopter head on. Though it’s still distant, the following explosion and careening helicopter shake Kaede, and she pulls Hoshi to run faster after her. He hisses as he lands on his injured leg wrong but otherwise doesn’t protest. 

Kaede keeps running without looking back. She hears the helicopter crash to the ground and the sound of the lazer going off again. Monokuma’s screaming something over what sounds like an intercom, and Momota shouts at Maki to move in his own voice. It’s all Kaede can do to block out the noises of their battle in favor of listening to ensure that Hoshi is right behind her.

They make it to taking cover behind the dorms that look like they’ve taken a beating, giving Hoshi a chance to recover before their next dash. Kaede spares another look at the battle. Maki’s somehow even faster than when she had dodged the Exisals back in the hanger. Momota’s covering fire is the only thing distracting Monokuma as Maki darts over the scorched ground of the former schoolyard, pausing for seconds to get a clear shot before darting away again, whatever spot she had been standing in being turned into a crater the moment she leaves it. 

Though Kaede never answered Hoshi’s question, she bites the inside of her cheek as she thinks the answer. 

What she does mutter aloud is, “I thought Kiibo-kun said he stopped Monokuma from making more of himself…”

“Maybe he was wrong,” Hoshi says. “Or maybe they came from somewhere else. Mean, I’ve never seen a helicopter or a tank lying around the school before.”

“They came from outside…” Kaede says. “There’s a place outside the school making more Monokumas.”

“That doesn’t seem great for us,” Hoshi says. “Also,” he nods towards the tank suddenly shifting position to head closer to them. “Think we should move.”

Kaede feels a sudden jolt of fear that propels her forward. Distantly, she hears Kiibo’s voice echo, “Akamatsu-san! Hoshi-kun! Monokuma sees you!”

In this sprint, Kaede has no idea if Hoshi’s behind her—any chance of hearing his footsteps made impossible even for her over the sound of Momota’s bullets splattering against the side of Monokuma’s tank. Hearing the gunshots at close range is a completely different experience from before as each noise explodes and echoes as it screeches against the metal. And all of that is nothing to the sound of the dorms crumbling to the ground. 

The school in front of her has taken a beating as well, though it’s still standing strong enough that Kaede forces herself to keep running even as pain jolts up through her leg. It’s only when she tears open the front doors does she pause to see Hoshi only a few feet behind her.

Monokuma seems to have gained more interest in attempting to fire at Maki easily dodging his shoots in the newly created rubble. Kaede has little love lost for her room in what was essentially a prison, but seeing it destroyed so easily hammers home the finality of their actions, as does the debris now scattered around the damaged school building. 

She waits just long enough for Hoshi to push past her into the school before slamming the doors shut as if such an action would stop a rocket from ripping them to shreds. Hoshi pauses only for a moment to collect himself before asking, “So—what do we do now?”

“Uh,” Kaede says. “Search for clues? Or at least pretend to?”

“Any ideas where to start in our imaginary search then?” Hoshi asks. 

Kaede tugs at her hat. “I… can search the basement if you’ll take this floor. Maybe Kiibo-kun can open the secret room or something.”

“And you think I’m gonna find anything here?” Hoshi says.

“Well,” Kaede says. “It’s less you finding something and more… how do I put this—Monokuma deciding it’s okay to reveal a hint.”

Hoshi gives her an odd look. “You think Monokuma’s about to give us a helping hand now?”

“I think…” Kaede says. “I think we should think about what Monokuma wants, and I don’t know that he wants us to lose. He just wants us to keep playing the game.”

“So if Monokuma tries to show me something,” Hoshi says. “Ignoring him is the best route.”

“I don’t know about that either,” she says. “Just… use your best judgment.”

Hoshi nods and starts to walk away from her. “Sure thing.”

“Oh, wait Hoshi-kun,” Kaede calls after him. “Also—you know—stay safe.”

He looks back at her over his shoulder with a slight smile. “I will if you will.”

Though it’s not the most reassuring sentiment in words alone, Kaede feels a certain camaraderie in his tone that allows her to begin her first steps towards her goal somehow optimistic. 

The battle outside makes it hard to discern specific noises as Kaede makes her way towards the basement, though when she feels secure enough in the distance, she pulls Iruma’s monopad from her backpack. “Hey, Kiibo-kun, can you still talk to me through this? I need to ask you something privately.”

She descends a few more steps on the stairs leading down when the monopad flickers on. “Hello, Akamatsu-san,” Kiibo says. “It appears I still do have a connection to this monopad, at least.”

“‘Appears?’” Kaede repeats. “You mean you weren’t sure?”

“I’m afraid not. In fact—” Kiibo abruptly cuts himself off, instead saying, “Never mind. There’s no need to trouble you with that now. Akamatsu-san, what did you want to ask me?”

“Um, okay?” Kaede says. “I just wanted to ask you to keep an eye on Tenko-san and let her know if Shirogane-san’s about to… sneak up on her or something.”

“There is no need to worry about that,” Kiibo says. “I have already been doing so, as I am currently in contact with her as well giving her directions on how to proceed with Harukawa-san’s task. However, it appears Shirogane-san is not a problem, actually, as she is leaving my lab right at this moment.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “What? Where is she going?”

“Here, I believe,” Kiibo says. “Though it will likely take her some time to make it through the battlefield. Things are becoming… increasingly dangerous as we speak.”

As if summoned by his words, Kaede hears another particularly loud explosion echoing a bit too close to her for comfort. “Is it safer or more dangerous if I go to the basement?” she asks more to herself than to Kiibo.

He debates her question for a second anyway before answering, “it is less likely you will be directly impacted by any missiles or debris, however, you will be putting yourself in a situation with only one exit. In the event the stairs become blocked or potentially destroyed—”

“I’ll be trapped—I got it,” Kaede says. “Anyway, Kiibo-kun, I was going to ask if it’s possible for you to maybe open the library door in the basement, but…”

She trails off, and Kiibo prompts, “Akamatsu-san?”

“I guess I can just ask Shirogane-san to open it when she gets here.”

Kiibo doesn’t seem to like that answer, but simply says, “I suppose that is one option, though I am unsure about trusting in her cooperation.”

“It’ll be okay,” Kaede says. “I don’t think she has any intentions of stopping me.”

The image of Kiibo’s face presses his mouth into a tight line, emoting his suspicion even as a projection of an A.I. “I see.”

Kaede enters the relatively undisturbed library as she says, “Anyway, what was it you were going to tell me? I think we have a second before Shirogane-san shows up.”

“That is true, however,” he says. “I do not know if you need to be burdened with this information at this time.”

“No, I want to hear it,” Kaede says. “And that’s what this fake search is about anyway—finding the last few pieces of information.”

“That… logically is true,” Kiibo says, and he the tension in his voice changes Kaede’s attitude from curious to worried. “This unfortunately is… difficult for me to come to terms with, though I understand that the situation is what it is.”

“And that situation is?” Kaede asks.

Kiibo pauses for another moment before saying, “To save my life, Iruma-san uploaded me into her monopad and allowed me to gain access to the school’s system as a whole. My original software was strangely compatible enough to enable such a thing in the first place, but I have some to realize something.”

“And that something is bad, isn’t it?” Kaede says.

“For me it is,” Kiibo says. “I believe that due to my current condition, I cannot survive beyond the confines of the school’s network. Even if the monopad was to be taken outside, as soon as it loses the school’s signal—whether by distance, the school’s network being shut down at the game’s finish, or the school’s destruction—I will not be able to function.”

Kaede’s grip on the monopad tightens. “You can’t leave?”

“No,” he says. “I also am not sure if this makes this finding better or worse, but from my investigation, I believe I was never able to. Destroying the school or leaving its confines—both will be the end for me.”

“That can’t be true,” Kaede says. “Or there has to be some other way. We’ll just figure out a way to put you on some other network—that’s what contacting the outside world is going to—”

“Akamatsu-san,” Kiibo says. “Maybe you misunderstood—I was compatible with the school’s network. I… have come to the conclusion that I was created for this game. When the game ends, whoever is in charge of it will shut me down along with everything else that had been keeping it running.”

“And I said you could escape with the broadcast or whatever,” Kaede says. “You just have to use that and then you’ll be free, right?”

Kiibo smiles. “I appreciate the thought, but… I’m afraid it doesn’t quite work that way.”

Kaede stares down at him, feeling herself at a loss. “Why are you giving up? Why are you—”

“I’ve made my peace,” he says. “I want to do everything in my power to assist you all in escaping, and… Perhaps this is irrational of me to say, but even though I do not know where an entity such as myself will go after my death, if I could choose, I think I would like to see Iruma-san and everyone else.” Kiibo hesitates for just a moment before he says, “And I will tell them we all made it out.”

“I…” Kaede says. “I think you should. And I think that will happen.”

“I’m glad,” Kiibo says.

“But I still don’t think you should just give up on yourself, either,” Kaede insists. 

“I already said it’s not as simple as that,” Kiibo says. “I am not giving up, but rather… I’m accepting what I am.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “What are you talking about? You hate it whenever we would call you a robot or point it out or—”

“Me being a robot is neither here nor there,” Kiibo says. “I could be a person and what I have found would likely still be true. I’m not… real.”

“Uh,” Kaede says. “No? You are. I know you’re a computer program, but I’m talking to you right now. And how could you be not real if you were a person?”

“The full answer to that is complicated,” Kiibo says slowly, measuring his words as he speaks. “But I have found from my investigations information to prove that I was an entity created solely for this game. So when I say I can’t exist outside of the game… I mean that in a few ways.”

“You were created for the game?” Kaede echoes at the same time she hears the front doors to the library creak open. Kiibo seems to be on the verge of saying something else to her, but she quickly cuts him off with, “Sorry, gotta go,” as she sees Shirogane peek her head in through the door.

Kaede doesn’t listen to Kiibo’s last protest, shoving him into her bag as she nods at Shirogane to step forward to meet her. Shirogane does so, only saying, “Hoshi-kun is somewhere else, I presume?”

“He should be on the ground floor or maybe upstairs,” Kaede says. “We’re searching for nothing so I don’t know what he’s doing.”

“Well,” Shirogane says, walking past her towards the secret door. “He’s searching for nothing.”

Shirogane presses on the shelf to cause it to swing back, revealing the door, and with just as much nonchalance she takes a cardkey from her pocket and runs it through the card reader.

The door makes a slight clicking sound before retreating into the walls to open before them. Shirogane steps to the side, saying, “After you.”

“Actually,” Kaede says. “I think you should go first.”

Shirogane smiles as she shakes her head. “I already told you, Akamatsu-san. I have no intentions of killing you or anyone else right now. Well,” she sighs as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Anyone besides Harukawa-san.”

Kaede can’t help but smirk at her. “You weren’t expecting that, were you?”

“No,” she says. “And she needs to die before the final trial. I’m a reasonable person, and you know I’m willing to compromise on a lot of things, but this is not negotiable.”

“So you’re just going to kill her?” Kaede says. “And what about the broadcast to your audience? You were alone with Tenko-san, but you didn’t sabotage it, did you?”

“Ideally, Harukawa-san will be dead before Chabashira-san can accomplish anything, even with Kiibo-kun talking her through it,” Shirogane answers. “Killing or hurting Chabashira-san or outing myself my doing something now would just make things worse.”

Kaede nods, trying to piece together the information before her. “So you’re just going to let Monokuma handle it?”

“For now,” Shirogane says. “Momota-kun jumping into things is a pain since blowing him up wouldn’t be ideal, so Monokuma’s a bit handcuffed at the moment, but,” she shrugs. “We’ll see. Anyway,” she begins to head into the room. “Are you coming, Akamatsu-san?”

Kaede pauses for a second, taking in the fact that she’s heading into the mastermind’s lair, practically holding hands with its owner. “Yes.”

The room that greets her is familiar. Shirogane doesn’t bother with any guiding words, instead hurrying off to pull a tarp off of what Kaede recognizes is the Mother Monokuma. It starts babbling to Shirogane about the grand reveal still being messed up, while Kaede stares at it in shock.

“This is…” Kaede says. “This is the room that connects the girls’ bathroom.”

“That’s right,” Shirogane says. “I cannot believe you and Iruma-san found it so fast. And then Iruma-san thought she was so clever coming down here to install Kiibo-kun into the system…” she shakes her head. “I cannot describe how much of a pain that was.”

“You think it was a pain!” the Mother Monokuma barks. “Think of what I’ve gone through! Having some brat rooting around in my system, shutting off my ability to make Monokumas, separating me from my precious Nanokumas—”

“Can you not contact them at all?” Shirogane asks. “I need you to deliver a message to Monokuma.”

Kaede hesitantly steps closer to them. “What are you trying to—”

“Let him know that Harukawa-san’s goal is to make it to Kiibo-kun’s lab,” Shirogane continues. “So he should set up a guard point around there. And if killing Harukawa-san isn’t possible, then he’s just going to have to blow up the lab.”

Kaede shouts, “You can’t do that! Tenko-san’s—”

“ _And_ one of our participants is in there, so only do it as a last resort,” Shirogane adds, rolling her eyes at Kaede’s outburst. “Do you have all that?”

“Yeah, yeah,” the Mother Monokuma says. “Let’s just see if I can do anything at all with this good for nothing surrogate separating a poor old mother from their children.”

Shirogane pinches the bridge of her nose at its whining but only responds with, “Just get the message out.”

Kaede thinks for a split second of how to proceed before shouting, “Kiibo-kun! Can you hear me?”

There are no monitors within the secret room, but the one from the library turns on at her call. Kiibo’s voice echoes back, “I can!”

“You heard what happened, right?” Kaede says. “Let the others know Monokuma knows about the plan.”

“Understood!”

Shirogane crosses her arms. “Well, I suppose we’ve both done what we could with that. Still, though, I’m telling you Harukawa-san is not surviving her little scuffle with Monokuma.”

“But what happens if she does and we do get the signal out?” Kaede asks. “Your game is ruined then, isn’t it?”

“I would highly prefer this plan fails, yes,” Shirogane says. “But if it does succeed, you have to know there’s plainly no way you all just walk free.”

“So you kill us all instead?” Kaede narrows her eyes.

“No,” Shirogane says. “We follow the rules to end the game.”

“But the whole point is that your rules don’t work and you’ve broken them over and over again,” Kaede says. “You can’t just say that doesn’t matter and pretend nothing happened.”

“Oh, it does matter,” Shirogane says. “I’m expecting a lot of backlash from all this, but I’d rather have just one subpar killing game than ruin the whole thing. Oh, and,” she puts a hand up, “don’t bother asking me what that means—I’ll explain later at the trial.”

Kaede clenches her hands into fists. “There’s not going to be a trial.”

“If you want me dead there is,” Shirogane says. “And after you finish investigating this room, you’re really going to want me dead. Trust me—I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Kaede fidgets slightly, not entirely sure how to respond to Shirogane’s directions. “I already investigated here earlier with Iruma-san. There’s nothing here.”

“No, there is,” Shirogane says. “I just didn’t have it ready back then. Go ahead—look around. I’ll wait. Oh, but if you do try to ask me anything, pretend I’m old, plain, boring me, just as a little favor. It’ll be easier to cut together that way.”

“You’re disgusting,” Kaede says.

Shirogane flinches at her words, immediately reverting back to her disguise. “Ah, Akamatsu-san, I know I’m plain but isn’t that a little harsh?”

Kaede sneers at her but moves to discover whatever clues Shirogane has left lying around. The first one is laid out in plain view on the previously empty coffee table. Kaede looms over what looks like a bloody monopad before hesitantly clicking it on.

The information confuses her for half a second before she remembers what Tenko had said earlier at the trial. “This belonged to Amami-kun, didn’t it? It was his survival perk. Did you,” she turns to Shirogane who’s staring at her innocently. Kaede rolls her eyes. “Did the mastermind take it from his room before the dorms were destroyed?”

“I don’t know about that,” Shirogane says. “I mean—it’s covered in blood. And the first time there was that much blood at the school was… Amami-kun’s death, wasn’t it?”

Kaede looks back down at it, noticing the outline of a handprint, and she whips back to hiss at Shirogane, “you took it off his corpse?”

Shirogane shrugs. “Who knows? How would someone even do something like that? No one was in the photos you and Saihara-kun set up in the library, and when Saihara-kun investigated the body, Amami-kun only had his regular monopad on him, didn’t he?”

Kaede scowls at her. “Why are you bothering with hiding things anymore?”

“Because there’s going to be another trial,” Shirogane says. “So, I think we should think about the mystery behind Amami-kun’s missing second monopad and how it ended up here later. There’s one more thing to investigate here.”

“And that is?” Kaede asks.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Shirogane says. “Why don’t you try looking around for…” she trails off as Kaede stares her down. With a huff she says, “Maybe someone came in here later looking to _throw away_ some evidence.”

“I’m not going through the garbage can.”

Shirogane shoots her a dirty look before hurrying over to reach into the trashcan herself. “There’s nothing even in here besides,” and she pulls out a shot put ball, “this. Now why don’t you,” she walks over to Kaede, extending the shot put with both hands. “Investigate.”

Kaede watches her carefully as she takes it before giving in and turning the shot put over in her hands. Holding a shot put ball again makes her feel slightly sick, but she inspects it, not noticing anything out of the ordinary until a fleck of color catches her attention. She picks at it with two fingers and the small pink fuzz comes away in her fingers. “Is this… a thread from my vest? When did you take this?”

“I never took anything from one of your vests,” Shirogane says. “What a strange question, Akamatsu-san.”

“The only person who could have put this here is you,” Kaede says. 

“No,” Shirogane says. “But the only person who could have done it is in this room.”

Kaede furrows her brow. “When would I have…” the answer dawns on her and her voice lowers as she asks, “how the hell did you get this? Doesn’t Mononkuma clean up the crime scenes?”

“Was that at a crime scene?” Shirogane asks. “I mean, I think if it was, wouldn’t it plainly be, you know, covered in blood? But if someone had washed it, then that thread would have been washed away, too.”

Kaede’s grip tightens. “This is my shot put. This is the one I carried around in my backpack and rolled down the vent.”

“Could be,” Shirogane says. “But you should really save that thought for later. For the—”

“The trial, I know,” Kaede says. “And you keep saying that, but there isn’t going to be a trial. Do you really think anyone is actually going to try to kill someone now?”

“Well, there could be if you let slip who I am,” Shirogane says. “But then someone will be executed and we’ll be down to three. Assuming Monokuma can get his act together and kill Harukawa-san.”

“I’m working on it!” The Mother Monokuma huffs. “There’s a process to these things, you know!”

Kaede keeps her glare locked firmly on Shirogane. “So you agree then—there’s no reason for there to be another trial.”

“Well,” Shirogane says. “Not a new trial, no. But the sixth trial is meant to be special, and there’s definitely precedent for retrials, so I figured why not?”

Many things about her cavalier statement strike Kaede, and her questions come out rapid fire. “Precedent? You mean the two killing games from forever ago? And how the hell can there be a retrial for anything? Isn’t that admitting that we got the culprit wrong?”

“Akamatsu-san,” Shirogane says. “I’m not going to answer any of your questions now, but I want you to hold on to that shot put ball and just think it over, okay? There was… one thing I was considering doing to add in a red herring, but it just seems silly now.”

“What’s even the point in trying to trick me now?” Kaede asks. “I already know your plan.”

Shirogane’s smile is sympathetic. “You definitely know more than you should, I’ll give you that. And this was going to be a last minute trick about the mastermind, so it wouldn’t do anything for you.” She laughs. “And it’s pretty ridiculous, too—more of an in joke than anything to take seriously.”

Kaede doesn’t share her humor. “What about you trying to trick us is so funny?”

Shirogane waves her hand. “Oh, I think trying to convince you that you have a twin sister who somehow snuck into the game or faked her death or something and is the mastermind is pretty funny. You didn’t see the Hope’s Peak Flashback Light, though, so you probably just think it’s weird.”

“I do think that’s weird,” Kaede says. “And is something that stupid really supposed to be convincing to anyone?”

“Eh, kinda,” Shirogane says. “If you meet up with Hoshi-kun, ask him about Enoshima Junko’s twin sister. Maybe he can explain why it’s so funny—though I guess if it needs an explanation, it’s really not that great of a joke, huh?”

Kaede doesn’t even bother to voice her disapproval, and Shirogane laughs at her glare. “Well,” Shirogane continues, “I need to be heading back now anyway if I don’t want to seem completely suspicious.”

She moves to leave, and Kaede blocks her path. “No—you’re going to answer me right now.”

Shirogane quirks an eyebrow. “Okay. And you’re going to bash me over the head if I don’t?”

Kaede suddenly becomes very aware of the intensity of her grip on the shot put. “I… could.”

“You really shouldn’t,” Shirogane says, pouting. “If you did then you coming this far would be kind of meaningless. Escaping death for the entire game just to be executed right at the very end?”

“I,” Kaede says. “I’m not afraid to die. And I’m not afraid of your executions either.”

Shirogane rolls her eyes. “It’s not about you—it’s about me. I can’t have you die right before the end.” She starts to leave the room again, and this time Kaede doesn’t stop her. “And the only person getting executed at the end is me, alright?”

Kaede watches her back until she disappears around the corner and back out into the library. The Mother Monokuma chuckles in the distance. “Well, this has certainly been an adventure. But I guess that was to be suspected with a mastermind who can barely hold things together. To be honest, I’m just happy the game got this far at all.” It lets out a sigh. “They just don’t make despair like they used to. Where’s Enoshima Junko when you need her?”

Something about its tone catches Kaede’s attention as odd. “Hey,” she says, addressing the giant robotic bear head. “By the way, who actually is this Enoshima Junko person? The others said she orchestrated the two previous killing games, but… does she actually have anything to do with us? If Shirogane-san’s the mastermind then is she a Remnant of Despair or one of Enoshima Junko’s followers?”

It laughs in response. “You know, I think that’s just fun enough a question that I’ll answer—mostly because it has a really fun answer. Little miss mastermind is not a Remnant of Despair, but she definitely is a follower of Enoshima-san.”

Kaede raises an eyebrow. “Do you… know Enoshima Junko?”

“Of course I do,” the Mother Monokuma says. “Everyone in the world knows her. Everyone in the outside world, everyone in this world—Enoshima Junko practically is this world after all.”

“I meant do you know her personally?” Kaede asks, suspicions rising at the strange declaration. 

“You could say that,” it says. “Where there’s Monokuma there’s Enoshima Junko!”

“But she’s been dead for years,” Kaede says. “And you just said she’s not running this killing game.”

It laughs again. “And that’s true, too! I haven’t said a single lie in this conversation, but you’re even more baffled than before, right? I told you your question had a fun answer!”

Kaede hears another distant explosion punctuating her bringing a hand to her forehead. “Alright, this is going nowhere—I’m leaving.”

It keeps chuckling to itself as Kaede takes a moment to deposit the shot put ball in her bag. The motion makes her stomach turn, but she swallows her discomfort as she picks her way through the room, hesitating for a second in indecision before heading out through the secret passage. 

Kaede keeps a rough count of how long the journey takes her, noting the time amounts to very little when she reaches the girls’ bathroom. She exits the room, and the school seems to shake again. Down the hall, she hears a startled grunt and turns to see Hoshi slightly off kilter from the most recent explosion. 

“Hoshi-kun,” she says, heading over to him. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” he says dazed. “‘m fine. I’m… fine.”

His response makes Kaede think he is decidedly not fine. “Are you sure? You seem…” she takes a second to really look him over and notices he seems far more disoriented than what the slight tremor running through the school would cause. “Kind of out of it.”

“Would say that sounds about right,” Hoshi says. “Found this Flashback Light a while ago, and it keeps messing with my head.”

“A Flashback Light?” Kaede asks. “What did you remember?”

“Nothing at first,” Hoshi says. “But ever since I used it, I keep getting these weird flashes of memories.”

“Oh, like a delayed reaction?” she says. “I’m sorry it’s messing with you though—now’s really not a great time to randomly be blacking out.”

He shakes his head. “It’s really not, but the memories aren’t unpleasant. There was one where some kid was talking about… how we’re all heroes or something. And another where… it was all of us—including everyone who died—together in some weird room, talking about how we were going to all be friends.”

“Oh…” Kaede says. “That does sound pretty nice. Kinda wish I saw it, too, actually.”

A grim expression stretches over Hoshi’s face at her words. “Not sure about that. But…” he pauses for a moment, seeing to debate something before pulling out what Kaede recognizes as another Flashback Light. “There is a second Flashback Light that I… found.”

“You sound unsure about that,” Kaede says. “Do you think it’s a fake like the one that said I was the mastermind?”

“Just,” he says. “Just try it.”

Hoshi flicks it on without waiting for a response, and suddenly Kaede’s world goes white, then bright gold, then black. Then she’s filled with memories of other Ultimates all also going off on their own spaceships on separate missions. There are other survivors out there like them, but it was classified information that only the participants of the Gopher Project knew.

Then the world fades back in. Hoshi’s still standing there, his mouth pressed into a thin line at the positive news. “We’re…” Kaede says. “We’re not the only survivors. Are the others the ones Monokuma is broadcasting the killing game to?”

“No,” Hoshi says. “Seriously doubt that.”

“Oh,” Kaede says. “Did you find more evidence?”

“Well,” he says. “Have the evidence that I made this Flashback Light.”

Kaede blinks at him and takes another look at the Flashback Light as if registering it for the first time. “You—how did you just…”

“The school’s pretty destroyed now,” Hoshi says. “And was wandering around when I found a room that had the door and part of the wall gone. Inside there was also this weird technology stuff.”

“Wait, which classroom was this?” Kaede asks. “I feel like we would have noticed stuff like that when we first explored the school.”

“Just one of the regular classrooms,” Hoshi says. “No idea how it all got there or we missed it or whatever. But it looked like a workstation or something to create Flashback Lights, and, well,” he gestures to the one in his hand, “I made this one.”

Kaede nods. “So they are just being made in the school by the mastermind.”

“Seems like it,” Hoshi says. “And the happy one I was talking about—found it when I finished making this one. My guess is the mastermind prepped it, but then never got around to using it for some reason.”

“So the mastermind wanted to give us weird, encouraging messages for some reason?” Kaede asks. “I mean, you did just happen to find it, right?”

He shakes his head. “No. When I made the Flashback Light I showed you, it appeared in a locker. That’s how I found the first one—it was already there.”

“So the one you saw was created the same way the one you made was?” Kaede asks. “That must be the place they’re produced then.”

“Think so,” Hoshi says before casting his gaze down to the Flashback Light. “And starting to think that all the Flashback Lights are fake. If I could make one to say whatever I wanted, the mastermind definitely has been.”

“I was afraid of something like that,” Kaede says. “So—I’m kinda even more afraid to ask this but—how far back do you think our fake memories go? If all of the Flashback Lights have been fake, then we don’t know anything about the outside world or why we’re here.”

Hoshi lets out a breath. “Saw the destroyed world for myself, but… if Monokuma’s able to bring in all these copies there has to be the manpower to manufacture Monokumas on the outside. And that’s not a good sign.”

“Yeah,” Kaede agrees. “Because wouldn’t that mean… the outside world is on Monokuma’s side? If no one’s rescued us, they’re actively supplying Monokuma, and just watching us…”

“Just what the hell is the world like?” Hoshi asks.

Kaede’s voice drops a few decibels, barely rising over the sounds of fighting from outside when she responds, “I don’t know.”

“And who the hell are we?” Hoshi asks. 

“I don’t know that either,” Kaede says. “I still have my memories from home, but there’s nothing I remember like Monokuma or the killing game.”

Hoshi takes a moment before asking the question Kaede didn’t know she had been dreading. “Think those are fake, too?”

“The first Flashback Light was the group funeral, right? Or was it us running from the Ultimate Hunt? I don’t remember, but,” Kaede says. “Those were the earliest Flashback Lights—so our memories from before those have to be right. Those are real.”

Hoshi doesn’t seem as convinced as Kaede hoped her false confidence would make him. His next words do nothing to quell her unease as he asks, “Akamatsu—one more thing. Was… there ever a moment when you tried to remember how you got here and just…”

He trails off, and Kaede feels a lump form in her throat as she knows exactly what he’s talking about. “Did your head start hurting really badly, too?”

Hoshi nods somberly. “Don’t know what the hell we got mixed up in, but I think it’s a lot worse than we thought.” He lets out a humorless laugh. “Never thought that a game where we’re forced to kill each other could somehow be even worse.”

“Yeah,” Kaede says. “But… there’s going to be no more murders. Not after today. So,” she summons her best smile, “I want you to remember that promise I made on the first day here. When we do get out of here, we’re all going to be friends, alright, Hoshi-kun?”

And despite the darkness of the conversation, Hoshi smiles back. “Personally, I’d say we’re already friends, Akamatsu. Or at least friendly acquaintances.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Kaede says. 

In the ruins of the school, their shared moment is interrupted by a click Kaede has come to recognize means Kiibo has taken over one of the monitors. “Akamatsu-san, Hoshi-kun,” he says. “Chabashira-san has almost finished her preparations, however, she could use more assistance for the final step.”

“Shirogane not enough help?” Hoshi asks. 

Kaede bites her lip as Kiibo flatly replies. “No.”

Hoshi gives the monitor a dubious stare as Kiibo abruptly turns himself off. Kaede quickly finds her own explanation. “He’s probably just busy helping Harukawa-san and Momota-kun.”

“Right,” Hoshi says, suspicion lingering in his voice.

The walk back through the school requires a few stops for them to push the newly created rubble to clear a path. The entire outside of the school appears in ruins, though the commotion appears to be gone. Kaede still hears the distant noise of gunshots and guesses the fight has moved to the lower courtyard, closer to Kiibo’s lab. She bites her lip, wondering if she should have done something to stop Shirogane from speaking to the Mother Monokuma when she had the chance.

Beside her, Hoshi says, “Think we’re clear until we reach the stairs. After that,” he shrugs. “It’ll probably be a lot worse.”

Kaede nods in agreement, and they begin their trek over the scorched ground of their former prison. She notes the destroyed remains of the gardens and sheds that she had once frequented lying in heaps next to a variety of destroyed Monokuma vehicles. She briefly searches for the remains of a purple Exisal and feels a rush of relief at finding no signs of it.

From the top of the stairs leading down, Kaede sees the full picture of the scene below. Monokuma’s original tank has taken a beating but appears to still be functional enough to continue engaging in its firefight with Momota. The Exisal darts around Tenko’s lab, and Kaede gets a clear view of another one of Monokuma’s missiles ripping through the once beautiful dojo. 

She watches the building fall for a brief moment before Hoshi mumbles to himself, “Where’s Harukawa?”

His words alert Kaede that Maki is nowhere to be seen. “Maybe she’s already inside of Kiibo-kun’s lab? He said Tenko-san needed extra help, so maybe Harukawa-san—”

“No,” Hoshi says, pointing out towards Kiibo’s lab, or more specifically, the roof of it. “There.”

Kaede had never thought someone could stand atop Kiibo’s lab from the spherical shape of the roof, but there Maki was kneeling next to a makeshift looking antenna behind her. The rather comically macabre image of Kiibo’s head on a spike is somehow overshadowed by the sheer rush of nerves Kaede suddenly feels. 

Hoshi says, “Looks like Shirogane and Chabashira got out of the building though…”

Kaede spares a glance away from Maki to see the two girls standing at the base of the lab, Tenko furiously checking her monopad for something. Kiibo decides to speak up from Kaede’s monopad as well at that moment, and after quickly retrieving him from her backpack, he says, “Akamatsu-san, Hoshi-kun, you are currently standing in the open and might want to find cover.”

“Is there going to be more fighting?” Kaede asks.

“I have conferred with Harukawa-san and we are both unsure what Monokuma’s response is going to be once the message begins,” he explains. “In the event that it is violent, he will likely be targeting Harukawa-san, and it is necessary she exposes herself while the signal is being broadcast. Momota-kun will attempt to preoccupy Monokuma, but…”

“It’s dangerous for us to just stand here,” Hoshi says. “And you’re arguing with Chabashira down there about it, too, huh?”

Kiibo sighs. “She is rather persistent, though I do not know how she is intending to do anything against Monokuma’s weaponry.”

“Hey, Kiibo-kun,” Kaede says. “Just… don’t worry about us—we’re not gonna die. Focus on Harukawa-san.”

Hoshi doesn’t know the hidden meaning of her words, but he nods in agreement anyway. “Yeah, your first priority is the person being shot at.”

“I know,” Kiibo says. “And also Harukawa-san is informing me she is ready. We are going to reverse the signal and instead of receiving messages, send one ourselves. And… I have also taken the liberty to make a bit of a show of it. Just to make sure the message gets across.”

Kaede’s about to ask what he means when the walls of dome, previously projecting the day time sky are suddenly plastered with Maki’s face.

Kaede watches in awe—distantly hearing Monokuma shriek as Momota’s Exisal all but tackles his tank. Maki fidgets slightly, also probably taking in the sight of herself across the sky. “Well,” she says. “I suppose that says everything I need to. But I am alive—Ouma was innocent, and Monokuma, the mastermind, and everyone else running this game broke their rules to execute him. You’ve already seen his fate, and seeing me here is more than enough evidence to prove that this game is invalid.”

Monokuma’s tank gets a shot off, and a missile flies wildly, far over Maki’s head and careening into the dome. The resulting impact obviously shakes her, but Maki doesn’t move from her spot as she continues. “Monokuma is currently trying to kill me to cover up his mistake—this game is flawed and the mastermind has regularly been trying to cover up the truth since the very beginning. Even if you are enjoying this, everything you’re watching is a lie—if my death was a mistake, what other mysteries has Monokuma faked? How long has he been hiding the truth?”

Monokuma screams, “The truth doesn’t matter!” in between blows of Momota’s Exisal. 

“I know now that you cannot destroy a game by working within its rules,” Maki says. “So there will be no more murders, no more victims, no more executions. Even if we all die, we refuse to play this game, and if you care about our lives in whatever twisted way, you care that we die fair. And that has not been happening.”

“Then there will be a retrial!” Monokuma shouts. “That’s it—a bear can fix his mistakes!”

Maki pays him no heed. “Maybe we are just race horses for you to bet on for who lives and who dies—but know that even that has been ruined for you. You cannot trust the killing game now, or as it was, or whatever happens in the future for it. This killing game and every killing game to come is now over.”

“And I’ll fix my mistake right—now!” Monokuma finishes, and another volley of missiles soar through the sky. The Exisal slams into the tank as it fires, sending the shots slightly off kilter but, Kaede realizes with absolute horror, not quite enough.

The shots tear through Kiibo’s lab and Iruma’s below. Maki’s face flickers from the impassive expression she had been wearing for the entire broadcast to let out a brief gasp as the roof she had been standing on falls out from under her.

The walls of the dome buzz with a newly displayed static. Everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion from how Kaede’s legs seem to refuse to move fast enough to the collapsing building to another shot that causes the base of Iruma’s lab to crumple in on itself even more so.

“Maki!” Momota shouts, and the Exisal abandons its fight with Monokuma to race over to the remains of the two labs.

Kaede hears Tenko scream, too, and sees her speed towards the rubble. Shirogane follows nervously behind her, also calling out in worry. Monokuma stops his assault to laugh, chanting provocations that everyone ignores.

Tenko and Shirogane had been the closest and make it to Maki’s side first. Tenko shoves aside some of the wreckage with a bit of difficulty, Shirogane hovering at her side. Then Momota, hoping out of the Exisal in a panic, rushes over to try and assist her. It’s only when Kaede is at the edge of the remains of the building does she what they’re shoving at.

Maki sits up, cradling one of her arms so Kaede can’t see the full extent of the damage. But what Kaede can see is a rather nasty head wound trickling blood down her forehead and a huge slab of concrete completely burying one of her legs from the knee down. From the few grimaces she lets slip as Tenko and Momota push fruitlessly to try and free her, Kaede gets the feeling that Maki isn’t in any condition to walk under her own power, let alone make the expert dodges she had before. 

And as Hoshi joins Kaede at her side, Maki voices her thoughts aloud. “Stop it,” she says. “You’re just wasting your own energy.”

“Shut up,” Momota says. “We’re not just leaving you to die here.”

“It doesn’t matter if I live or die,” Maki says. “What matters is that you escape. If you stay here and let yourselves get killed, then everything I’ve done will have been for nothing.”

“Maki,” Momota says, near breathless, and it’s then Kaede fully takes in the dried blood on his shirt and smeared around his mouth. “I already thought you died once. I’m not going through that again.”

Maki gives him a hard look, her mouth pressing into a tight line. 

Tenko stops her struggling then and moves to stand in front of Maki’s position, arms held stretched out on either side. She says, “Monokuma, Harukawa-san’s broadcast succeeded and whoever is watching us knows she is alive. There is no point or reason to kill her now.”

“No reason?” Monokuma calls out. “Why, she committed grievous acts of violence against the headmaster, and that, children, is against the rules!”

“She didn’t kill you though,” Kaede says. “You fought, but she never destroyed you. Kiibo-kun told us that there is only one Monokuma now, so if you’re here then—”

“And I attacked you, too!” Momota shouts. “So if you wanna kill Maki, you’re gonna have to kill me, too.”

Maki hisses in pain as she shifts to grab at Momota’s pant leg. “Stop it. I’m telling you to—”

“Also,” Hoshi says. “Do you really want to be caught breaking your rules again right after that announcement?”

Monokuma pauses to grumble before says, “well, I also now feel the need to inform all of you that attendance at all class trials is mandatory! No ifs ands or buts!” 

“But no one else is dead!” Tenko says. “You can’t just—”

The all too familiar chime announcing the end of an investigation echoes around them. Monokuma says, “as the game master, I reserve to hold a retrial for a trial gone wrong.”

“You can’t redo Maki’s trial without her,” Momota says. “I know what you’re trying to do and—”

“In a few short moments,” Monokuma says. “We will be holding a retrial for the murder of Amami Rantarou. All students are asked to report to the trial grounds in order to commence. And if your leg just happens to be stuck with no way of escape under a giant rock, well then that sucks for you!”

He vanishes at the end of his speech, leaving the others to stare at each other. Shirogane says softly, “what are we supposed to do now?”

Momota starts to stomp back towards his Exisal. “We’re getting that boulder off of her and taking her with us.”

“Momota,” Maki says.

“This thing took a beating,” he says. “But it’s still pretty strong—I think I can lift it off of her.”

“Momota.”

“And then she’ll just have to lean on me or maybe Chabashira through the trial. We just figure it all out fast and then find help for—”

“Momota, I can’t feel my leg anymore,” Maki says. “Even if you were able to use the Exisal, it wouldn’t matter. I…” She takes a deep breath. “I am going to die whether Monokuma decides to kill me or not.”

Kaede tears her eyes away from Momota to really take in Maki’s appearance. She seems paler by the second, and though her voice remains steady, Kaede can see her shaking. “Harukawa-san… you’re…”

“I knew I was likely to die as soon as I agreed to this plan,” Maki says. “And I knew I would be used up and then killed at some point as soon as I became an assassin. I never expected to make it through this game, so don’t feel sorry for me. Just get through the trial and survive.”

Tenko kneels at her side. “Tenko treated the others before maybe she can…” she pauses for a second to wipe at the tears brimming in her eyes. “Tenko can do something, and then you’ll make it through with the rest of us. We’re not sacrificing anyone anymore.”

Hoshi takes a step closer. “No,” he lets out a deep breath. “Harukawa is right. Trying to do anything would just prolong her pain. Know you’re all trying to be nice, but anything you do now isn’t a mercy.”

“I-Is she going to bleed out?” Shirogane asks. “Or is she in shock? Is there anything we can do if she’s in shock? H-How do we know if someone’s in shock?”

As Shirogane panics, Tenko very gently reaches forward to take the arm Maki had been holding close to her chest. Maki winces as Tenko’s fingers graze her mangled limb, and Kaede squeezes her eyes shut, not bearing to look at the sight. “I… I don’t want to abandon her either, but I think Hoshi-kun is right. We… what are we supposed to do?”

“Well we’re not just fucking leaving her!” Momota shouts. “We’re not—we’re not making it this far, losing her once, and then just deciding she’s dead!”

“Momota,” Maki says. “Calm down and think about this rationally.”

“No!” he says. “You—you were the one who told me that throwing my life away was stupid, but you want me to just sit here and let you die alone?”

Maki lets out a deep breath. “You know I barely even had a life. This doesn’t mean the same thing it meant for the others who died. And you know I don’t care if I die alone.”

“Well I do!” Momota says. “You’re my friend, and I promised that I was gonna stay with you until the fucking end of this thing!”

“And I promised Ouma that you would live,” Maki says, an air of finality in her words. “It was part of our deal. So you’re going to go to the trial and stop wasting time here.”

Momota falters for a second, clenching his jaw and his hands balling up into fists. Then he marches back over to Maki, kneeling at her other side and taking her uninjured hand. “Then I’m sorry I’m disappointing Kokichi. I already said it and I’ll say it again—I lost you once and I am not going through that again as long I live.”

“Kaito,” Kaede says. “Are you really…”

“Maki,” he says, grinning fondly as he shakes his head. “You’re an idiot if you think you’re the only person here who knows they’re not making it out of this game.”

Maki struggles slightly at his words, grimacing as she jostles her own injured limbs. “Momota, I won’t let you—”

“As soon as I got this cough, all I could think is that if I was gonna die, I wanted it to mean something,” Momota says. “You said your death doesn’t matter because you’re not a person, but, hey,” he smiles down at her, “I think spending my last breath telling you that’s not true—that would mean something, right?”

Maki’s voice is choked when she speaks next, and Kaede finds herself taken aback at a sight she thought was impossible. Maki shakes her head, the tears streaming freely down her face. “No! I already told you—I don’t want you to die! I don’t care if I’m alone—I don’t care who leaves me as long as…”

Her voice becomes more and more garbled and Kaede hears her whisper, “I don’t want you to die,” again before Momota gingerly wraps his arms around her shaking shoulders.

Tenko’s crying, too. “Harukawa-san, Momota-san… you’re both…”

“Yeah,” Momota says. “Yeah, we are.” Maki hammers his chest with her good hand, and he wheezes at the contact. “Hey now, let me get a few more goodbyes in, Harumaki. We’re gonna go out like heroes, you know? And heroes always say goodbye.”

Kaede sees Maki shake her head again as the nickname seems to make her cry harder. “Did you make that up just now?” she asks, trying to keep her tone light even as her voice falters.

“Sure did,” he says with a grin. “Oh, and by the way, Kaede—you’re still angry, right? You’re still gonna fight Monokuma?”

Kaede nods, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I am.”

“Good,” Momota says. “Then give ‘em hell for me. And you, too, Chabashira. And Hoshi—let them know what you’re fighting for. And, hell, Shirogane, too.”

“I-I’ll try,” Shirogane stammers, and the false sympathy in her voice makes Kaede’s stomach turn.

Maki slams her hand into Momota again, finding her voice as she says, “You—letting yourself die—you know that only makes my pain worse? Knowing that you’re dying because of me—”

“Maki,” he says. “You know I don’t have a lot of time left—I’m kinda fighting to even hold it together right now. So, the way I see it, I could spend my last few moments yelling at Monokuma,” he squeezes her hand. “Or I could spend them with you.”

Maki just shakes her head, but doesn’t say anything more after that, seemingly torn between being pained and relieved by the turn of events.

Hoshi says, “so you’re decided then—no changing your mind?”

“Nah,” Momota says. 

“Alright,” he says before taking a deep breath. “Then…” he pauses, and Kaede realizes she has no idea what anyone is supposed to say when faced with such a horrible situation before them. “Take care.”

“Will do,” Momota grins back.

Tenko’s still wiping at her eyes as she slowly lifts herself back to a standing position. Kaede moves over to support her, gently placing a hand on her back. To Momota and Maki, Kaede says, “what we did mattered, and we’re going to make the mastermind and Monokuma—and everyone—knows that.”

“You bett—” Momota cuts himself off as a cough racks his body. Maki shifts as much as she can to attend to him, even though there’s nothing either of them can do at this point.

It becomes clear his coughing fit is going to take a while. Maki pauses, then all the emotion that had burst out of her suddenly drains away in favor of her usual guarded expression. She nods to them. “Go—Monokuma won’t wait forever.”

Kaede nods back and forces herself to look away from them and make those first few steps out of the rubble. Tenko’s walking with her, and she hears Hoshi and Shirogane’s footsteps behind, crunching the remains of the labs underneath them.

Momota’s coughing, however, is the noise that follows her as they finally reach the landing before the elevator.

When there, Tenko tugs at her sleeve. “Kaede-san,” she says, voice still hoarse from crying. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I…” she says. The gravity of losing one of her first friends and her first rival at the academy still hasn’t hit her yet, and her voice is hollow when she replies. “I don’t know. They were…”

Tenko fidgets at her answer. “Tenko doesn’t know either, but… about the trial—Monokuma said it was going to be a retrial for Amami-san’s murder. Are you,” Kaede sees the fright in her eyes as Tenko drops her voice to a whisper, “are you going to be executed, too?”

Kaede feels her chest seize up at the thought. “I,” she glances over her shoulder to Shirogane standing placidly behind them. “No—I-I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“You’re sure?” Tenko says, still obviously terrified.

“I think so,” Kaede says. “Because… I don’t think I killed Amami-kun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A story I meant to tell at the end of last chapter but forgot is kind of what inspired Maki's death fake out. When V3 was first released in Japan, there were a ton of fake spoilers floating around, and my personal favorite is that Amami faked his death and hid in the vents since it gets sillier the more you try to think through the details. So for this chapter, I tried to think out a way where something like that could plausibly happen, and hopefully I did an alright enough of a job!


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